Epistle - 6.30.10

Hey there everyone!

Another week has passed. The first week in this transfer. The first
week is always funny, there's just so much to get done!

Last Wednesday I spent from about 7:00am to 6:00pm just driving people
around for transfers. Bikes, desks, beds, dressers, luggage,
everything necessary to make everything work. Fun stuff!

I suppose the biggest news this week is a Mission President change.
President and Sister Matsumori officially arrived yesterday, and
President and Sister Mansell fly out later today. Amazing to see them
go. President Mansell has done incredible things with this misison.
When he got here the obedience levels were NOT very high, and under
his stewardship This has become an obedient, hardworking mission.
Amazing to see what a good steward can do with the Lord's help.

One funny thing this past week was a call from President on Monday. He
told us that Elder Rich (The director of the Visitor's Center) had
organized a mission prep class for Aaronic Priesthood age young men,
and invited all 4 stakes in the mission, and then forgot! So when he
got a call from one of the stakes about it two days before the event,
he remembered that he had promised them a whole program put on by
missionaries from our mission. Talks, testimonies, musical numbers.
Problem!

So President told us we were to go bail him out and provide a musical
number, which of course we gladly did. We did "His Hands" as a duet
(For the third time). It went well, and that's all we had to do for
the program.

You know I'm just not sure what else to talk about! How about the weather?

The weather today is GORGEOUS. It is partly cloudy and 72 degrees
outside. That makes for a very happy Elder Adams!

And I suppose that's the best note to end on. A happy Elder Bear.
Things are good.

I love you all!
-Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 12.16.09

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Life is continuing apace. My car now also has new front tires. My apartment has picked up the Magic Bullet Strawberry Bananna smoothie breakfast tradition that I used to do in Derwood. I've discovered that Grape Nuts are actually pretty delicious after a sudden urge to live The Word of Wisdom a little more fully, And my voice is now almost back to normal after losing it completely last Wednesday night while I was sleeping. ("Hey, Where'd I put that thing anyways?")

We had a fun experience yesterday. We had a pretty empty day, with really nothing to do all afternoon, so we were going to go check on some people and see if we could find them home (People we'd talked to before or Members of the church who don't come out very often).

About the second or third place we went, we were walking down a stairwell in an apartment complex and a man was coming out of his apartment. Elder Luk said hello to him and asked if he'd ever spoken to missionaries like us before. The man replied that he was a member and was new to the ward. I asked him "So when did you move in?" He answered "Well... I'm trying to right now". We asked if we could help and he said if we wanted to. So we took off our suit coats and went to see the situation. He had rented the Truck at 7:30 Monday morning, and had finished packing past midnight, when only 2 people showed up to help him and they didn't really know what they were doing. He had then driven his truck from Connecticut to Northern Maryland and had only just arrived and gotten the key to his apartment when we ran in to him at 12:30pm Tuesday. So he had been up about 30 hours, had eaten some oatmeal and a granola bar, had just arrived with a truck full of stuff and had no one to help him unload. Needless to say it was a not so small miracle we arrived when we did. We called up the French Elder in the ward and asked them what they were up to. They said they were on their way to help a member rake some leaves. I told them that was perfect that they were already in service clothes, and that they should probably call the member and tell him the situation we were in and he'd probably let them come help us. We then spent about 5 hours moving all of this mans stuff in to his apartment, just in time to make it to our next appointment.

It's so fun to be On the Lord's Errand. We arrive exactly where we're supposed to be when we're supposed to be there and Elder Luk felt prompted to talk to just the man that needed to see us.

I love each of you and hope you have a very good Christmas season.

-Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 12.9.09

Howdy Everyone!

Time is short today. We have to be at the Bishop's house in one hour for dinner, and we haven't shopped for Groceries yet. Then another hour and we need to be at the car dealership to pick up our Malibu, and 15 minutes later we need to be at our apartment to meet a member who's going out with us tonight to meet a couple people.

I think the only way to keep this night on schedule is prayer power, can I get an Amen?

Well Mission life is still awesome. The Church is still true.

I've got another new Elder with me now, Elder Thompson showed up 2 weeks in to the transfer straight from the MTC. He's waiting for his Visa to go to the West Indies to speak Dutch in Suriname. Pretty cool. He's from Salt Lake and is really tall. He can dunk (We played some Ball this morning).

So Elder Thompson is straight from the MTC and Elder Luk has been out 2 months, and my roomates go home in 4 weeks and 10 weeks respectively, and I'm sort of in the middle. Diverse apartment, eh?

I love you all. I'm happy and healthy, and pray that you are the same.

-Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 10.28.09

Good Wednesday everyone!

Everything here is going well. To share the best experience of the week I'm going to copy and paste an excerpt from my weekly letter to my Mission President, in the interest of time.

===================================================
Last night we had an amazing experience. Two appointments dogged us, so we went to our backup of tracting a street on the other side of our area at 7:00 at night in the rain. We finished one side of the block, and at the corner on the other side was a church building. The house next to it wasn't on the property of the church, but it was a very nice looking house, and seemed like it just might be the preacher. With a grin and a bit of a joke about how we could convert the whole congregation by getting the preacher, we knocked on the door, only to have it answered by an older white man in ordinary clothes, but with a cross hanging from his neck. It turns out his name is Norm, and he is a Presbyterian minister. We sat down and I asked him some friendly questions about his denomination and the organization of his faith, very aware of my role as an official representative of our church, and knowing my duty to convey our respect for our Christian brethren. After a few minutes of that he said "now tell me about your church, you've very politely listened to me."

I very briefly outlined the basics of Christ's church, apostasy and restoration, and he commented "Oh if you had said you were Latter-Day-Saints I would have recognized you, I just didn't know the name of this "Munson" you spoke about" I explained he was the 16th president of the church and prophet of this dispensation (And that his name was Monson!).

I asked him if he had any questions that he wanted answers, intending for him to ask about our faith. He took the question differently and started detailing some details in the Bible he was searching for answers about. Specifially he referenced a time when it says within the councils of heaven an angel agrees to put a lying spirit within 400 prophets to send King Ahab to his death, that confused him, and he talked a little bit about his wondering if Everyone was saved or not, and specifically voiced his wonder about people who never hear about Christ. I bore my testimony to him that there were answers within our message, and God wanted him to have them. I asked him how, if God wanted him to know the answers, would God tell him. He answered through revelation. I agreed and asked, In the case of King Ahab how did God reveal the truth to him? And he answered "By sending a prophet". I again bore testimony that God had sent a prophet to us to answer all these things, and brought out The Book of Mormon, asking him what he knew of its origins. He explained he knew about the golden plates and translation in to English by God's power. I shared the promise from Moroni Chapter 10 with him and he explained he had heard the verses before, and had in fact received his first copy of the Book of Mormon while in High School. He explained he couldn't promise to reading the Book a lot because of how busy he was, and readily agreed when I suggested that we leave a couple of chapters. We left Alma 32 and 3 Nephi 11, and committed him to read them before we came to see him again and pray in the name of Christ to know whether they were true.

I believe this was the scariest, most intimidating experience I've yet had in my mission. It was made more scary because he was honestly listening to us, not simply rejecting what we had to say. That meant that we honestly had an opportunity to teach him, and I was terrified that I wouldn't know what to say.

Scared as I was, with a fervent prayer for guidance in my heart I spoke with a clarity and conviction, teaching in a way so perfectly situated, linking together every concern he had raised that I could never claim the words as my own.

It was biking home from that appointment that I was filled with a desire to be ever worthy of such experiences, and to stay clean from the world. I wanted to do it for Norm, and I wanted to do it for however many others I may yet be able to touch in my life.

As I stand today President, I feel very good.
===================================================

Well that was one of the more exciting experiences of this week.

Also, Amanuel was confirmed last Sunday. He is ready to go and help us teach all of the Ethiopians here. We run in to a TON of ethiopians, many of which speak very little English. We have been telling President Mansell that we need an Amharic program but in the meantime now we have Amanuel on our side, a man who truly fell in love with the Book of Mormon. He told us once, "Every time I read this book, I feel happy!" And on the day of his baptism he said, "Today is a very good day in my life". Yes it is Amanuel, yes it is.

I love you all. I hope you are all doing at least half as well as I am doing, because if you were you'd all be having a great time!

-Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 10.16.09

Hello everyone!

I have a new companion. His name is Elder Grady, from Bountiful, Utah. He seems like a very good guy, and I'm excited to work with him.

That also means another transfer in the City, on a Bike, in the Winter. Bring it on!

The weather has been crazy lately. Tuesday was about 70, and Wednesday was about 50, and no that is not an exaggeration. 20 degrees temperature drop in 24 hours, plus rain. Lots of rain. In the spring we had the short torrential downpours that stopped, now we're getting a more Seattle rain. lighter but constant. Actually the weather has been reminding me of Seattle a lot, which is sort of nice.

Amanuel was baptized last Saturday, which was a wonderful service. He was so well prepared. Plans are he will be confirmed on Sunday, but we'll see, his life is not easy and he is not in complete control of his schedule.

We also committed two new people to baptism on Tuesday, Tamika, a 22ish year old mother of one, and Shanea, a 24ish year old mother of two. Their dates are for November first and eighth respectively. They will both have to put a lot of work in to prepare, but I am absolutely confident the Lord will prepare the way when they do their part.

I love you all, and appreciate all your support.
I apologize my epistles are not as long as they might be, but as many of you are aware we do have time limits for time spent e-mailing.

Love you all!
-Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 10.7.09

Welcome to October friends!

We've been dealing with a bit of sickness in my apartment, but I've developed a loving relationship with Sudafed, and all seems to be going OK.

General Conference was incredible. I really enjoyed it. After the Saturday Morning session of General Conference Amanuel, whom we've been working with, said that he didn't want to keep waiting to be baptized, and wanted to know why it couldn't be sooner. So we said it could be sooner, and he will now be baptized next Saturday. He just had his interview yesterday and was found ready. Fun stuff!

Today was the "Death Temple Trip" meaning all the missionaries who are going home next week went to the temple, +their companions, +a bunch of other missionaries that show up just to see the departing missionaries for the last time. There were a lot of Elders but it was a great experience. I love the Temple!

In other news, next week P-Day and Transfers will be on Friday, Oct. 16th, instead of the usual Wednesday. This is because President Mansell is busy hosting a Mission President's conference in our Visitor's Center. So you won't be hearing from me until next Friday. Hope you can last the extra two days!

And the most important part:

I love you all.
You are in my prayers.

-Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 9.2.09

Hello Everyone!

So, I have been transferred! I am now back in the District, this time up in North East. We live in the RittenHouse, which supposedly used to be a well known place? I don't know... It's really nice though. It's the only missionary appartment that has computers to e-mail at in the building! That's nice.

Being in the District, I am, of course, still on a bike. I'm getting my money's worth out of that thing!

Next Tuesday I'll be singing in another Night of Music and Inspiration, but my accompaniest got transferred to the southern tip of the mission (Lexington Park), so a last minute accompaniest change to Elder Sheffield (He's the one who accompanied me in a musical number in the MTC)... that will be fun!

Well, being new to the area I don't know a whole lot about what's going on, but I hear we're going to have baptisms this transfer so I'm excited!

Love you all!
Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 8.26.09

Good Wednesday Everyone!

Goodness life has been interesting this past week. Having two areas temporarily combined for 3 weeks is a very strange experience. We are constantly just running everywhere. Never a dull moment. We thought we were having a dull moment last night and then a member of the ward called us and said "Hey when are you guys going to get here for dinner?" Oh... of course we new we had a dinner appointment tonight... we're on our way! Be there in.. 10 minutes? Oh yes. Never a dull moment.

Transfers is next week, meaning call out monday is this coming monday. It is always an exciting time to see what might happen. Here comes my prediction, which is normally wrong :)

Elder Frizzell has two transfers left. Normally your last two transfers are spent in your "Death Area" an area where you will be happy and able to work a lot and enjoy the end of your mission. This complicates things because Elder Frizzell's companion is gone, so he would need to show the area to a new person. Normally I would assume both Elder Levie and I are staying together in the Derwood East area, BUT, I think the most logical thing to do would be to put Elder Frizzell in a fun death area, move me to Olney with a new companion, and give Elder Levie a new companion in Derwood East. We'll see what happens but there's Elder Adams's prediction!

Well I'm about out of time. This P-Day is very rushed due to an appointment that will cut our P-Day short by a couple hours (When it's only 8 in the first place!) but I suppose the work is the work!

I love you all. Thanks for all your prayers and support.

-Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 8.19.09

Good Wednesday Everyone!

Well our Mini-Missionary is gone. And Elder Cox is gone. So, we have gone from 5 people in our appartment, in 2 companionships, to 3 people in one companionship for the next 2 weeks.

Other than that I'm never really sure what to update you all on! We now cover 2 wards, meaning we are in church meetings from 7am to 4pm, which is different. It also means we are getting member meals most nights, which is also different from how it's been lately. And it means we are in a car, which is different.

Last week I got to go on an exchange with Elder Freeman, one of our Zone Leaders. The Zone Leaders cover a spanish area, so I got to do that for a day, it was fun. He also gave me a spanish->English dictionary, which I've been wanting for a while, and I snagged a copy of "El Libro De Mormon". I've already been talking to spanish people a lot on the street, but now that I'm actually taking a little bit of time to refine my ability to speak I can see the Lord truly magnifying it. I put in a little effort and there are huge dividends in the results, which has been fun to see.

In other news... I basically don't get any mail from anyone except my dad and my mom... so if anyone else wanted to drop me a line and say "Hi" it'd be greatly appreciated!

Elder Ted P. Adams
11700 Falls Rd.
Potomac, MD 20854

I love you all! Hope all is well!

-Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 8.12.09

Good Wednesday Everyone!

News to relate:

The Mini-Mission is going very well. John Newkirk, from the Suitland Ward in Southern Maryland is a very cool kid. He is 18, just graduated from high school, and has one of the most mellow personalities I've ever met. He is very willing to work with us and is very enjoyable to be around. I think Everyone's having a good time.

One of my roomates, Elder Cox, is finally leaving us. He's being transferred to a service mission in Utah. I think he will enjoy it there. Until transfers (In 3 weeks) Elder Frizzell will be once again combing areas with my area. The funny kicker is that because of the mini-missionary, I think we will be the only 4-person missionary companionship in the church! I can't think of another group of circumstances where a 4-person companionship would happen other than a mini-mission, so it's pretty funny :) We'll be splitting up and Bro. Newkirk will get to work a little bit harder than he might have intended! On Sunday he goes back home, and we will be in a 3-person companionship for the remaining 2 and a half weeks of the transfer.

I thought I would share an interesting think I noticed a little over a week ago. I don't THINK I've mentioned this before, if I have I'm sorry.

As you all know, at the beginning of the year I was asked to sing a duet at a leadership meeting where Elder Holland addressed the leadership of the DC North and South Missions. I was the only person in attendance who was not in a leadership position. I was speaking to the Assistants to the President after the meeting, who were responsible for choosing the musical number. I was told that there conversation went something along the lines of:

"Well, it's Tuesday. Who can have a musical number ready by Saturday that will be good?"

"Well, Elder Elsworth can play the piano.. and his companion Elder Anderson can sing all right"

"Ya but we need a really strong voice to sing"

"We need to call Elder Adams"

"Ya but there has to be someone in leadership that can do it!"

"Yes but we want it to be really good, on short notice, so we have to call him"

"Well.. I guess Elder Adams' voice lessons are going to pay off!"

And it was that last line I was thinking about. I was told that Elder Murri made that comment "Well I guess Elder Adams' voice lessons are going to pay off!"

This lead me to think, why did I start taking voice lessons? And I'm not certain if my parents even know the answer to this or not, I don't remember if I ever mentioned it to them. I remember very clearly when I decided to start taking voice lessons.

I was driving out of Bellevue Community College one day, and for some reason I had been thinking about the parable of the talents (I don't remember why). I thought, well... I have a talent for singing I guess, and I really like to sing. The parable says that if I don't develop that talent, it will get taken away.

That thought really bugged me. I enjoyed singing a lot, and really didn't want it to be taken away, so I thought to myself, I really need to start taking voice lessons and get more serious about singing.

It was that moment of pondering on one of Christ's parables that lead me to take voice lessons. It was taking voice lessons that lead me to be able to shake the hand of, and be taught by, and apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I had never before made the connection in my life of that blessing being linked to the pondering and application of the teachings of the savior. When that connection was made I truly felt even more blessed.

I know there is great power in following the promptings and teachings of the spirit. I know that our greatest joy in this life will come through humble and submissive obedience to the teachings of the Savior through his own words and through the words of all of his prophets who have ever lived, who do live, and who will yet live.

I love you all. I love to hear about your lives, please drop me a note.

-Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 8.5.09

That strange day that comes in every missionary's mission has come in mine...

I only have 364 days left as a full time missionary. One day less than a year. There is no more time for slacking off! It's time to work!

This week we have continued working with Dexter. He's a very intelligent, inquisitive man, with a very strong character (stubborn sometimes?) who is very genuinely interested in the church. Working with people like him can be a challenge because you have to cater more to how they want to be taught, and the pace they want to go at... but in the end they are worth it because they make wonderful members of the church.

We need to go shopping pretty quick so I'm short on time... so one last piece of fun news.

Our Mission President called us last night and told us we had been chosen to host a "Mini-Mission". These are defined a little different by different people so I'll explain exactly what he meant. An 18 year old young man from the Capitol ward (Just South of the DC limits) is going to be joining my companion and I on Sunday. He will follow all the rules, and be with us all day every day. He'll have a bed and a desk and be treated just as a normal missionary. He'll be with us for one full week.

That means that it's our job to make sure he has an awesome experience. But we're very excited for it :)

Hope you all have another wonderful week. I love you all!

-Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 7.29.09

What? July is almost over? That can't be true!

I'm closing in on the home stretch of my mission, and within a meer week will have less than a year left on my mission. Ladies and gentlemen, these are scary times.

On to the news.

My new companion, Elder Levie is awesome. He was homeschooled, so he sort of has that same rough, "I am me and i'm not quite sure what to do about it if you don't like it because I never went to public school" personality and sense of humor that I do. We get along very well. We work hard together, and we laugh hard together. Honestly, what more could you ask for in a companion?

Our area is going through a flush right now. My previous companion Elder Kelly held on to a lot of potential investigators and such that we hadn't talked to since I got there. Once he was gone we called through the list, left voice mails saying "Call us back if you're interested" and dropped about half of them.

We did the same thing to investigators. One of the most common methods of "Sifting" investigators is something called a "Conditional Baptismal Commitment". Basically you make sure the spirit is really strong by bearing testimony, etc, then you ask a question along these lines: "When you've prayed and asked God if our message is true, and have received an answer, and KNOW THAT IT IS TRUE because God has told you so, are you willing to act on that answer from God himself and be baptized by authority in to this church?"

Shockingly, some people are capable of saying no to a question like that. So then we will generally try and break it down really simple to make sure they understand what we're saying by saying something like "So if God himself walked in to this room, and told you that what we have taught you is true, that this is His church, and that he wants you to join it, you would not be willing to do that?"

And, incredibly the answer is sometimes no. At which point we say then there is nothing we can do for you, and meeting with you is not going to be a valuable use of the Lord's time. And we stop meeting with that person. If someone does not yet know that our message is true, we can help them gain that testimony. We can work with them and bring the spirit and encourage them to keep praying until they know for themselves whether it's true or not. What we can not do is help someone be willing to do what God tells them to do. That's their agency.

So we've been doing a lot of thought and have, figuratively, trimmed the vineyard.

Now, why do we trim a vineyard? Because we don't want as much good fruit? Because we're wasteful and silly? Nope. When we trim it, better fruit grows. You knock all the bad apples off of a branch, and the ones left, and the ones that will come after will be better. So we've already started to see some of that and have met some awesome people know that we've got some weeding done.

Well everyone, I really do love you all. I appreciate your prayers, letters, and even good thoughts.

Take care of yourselves, and keep writing those letters!

-Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 7.22.09

Good Wednesday Everyone!

I hope you are all doing well.

News of transfers: I am staying. My companion, Elder Kelly, has left and I am receiving Elder Levie, who is from Arizona.

It was interesting last night to go and take Elder Kelly to those people in this area whom he helped to join the church.

As we left a particular families house, by the name of Sam and Kady, both Sam, a large west african with black belts in several martial arts, and Kady could not restrain tears.

In one sense it is a profound testament to the character of a missionary to see how their investigators care for them, but it is also a testament to the blessings these people have already felt from the gospel. Their gratitude towards the servants of the Lord who brought them that gospel is indicative of their love for the gift given.

In that same household is Kady's mother. She speaks Creole, and no English, and she is Muslim. When the missionaries started coming in to the home she wanted nothing to do with them, but as she has seen the changes that the gospel has brought to those whom she loves, such as helping Sam kick heavy drinking, smoking, and drug habits in the course of mere weeks, she has grown to love the missionaries dearly for the blessings they have brought in to her home. It was touching to see her conveying how much she would miss Elder Kelly to him in Creole, and Kady let us know that her mother had been crying earlier when she found out he was leaving.

We truly grow to love these people, and some of them grow to love us, and yet it's funny that we really have nothing to offer them in and of ourselves, but only that which we have been commissioned to share with them.

If you look at any LDS missionary's name tag you will see two names, larger than anything else on the name tag. The first is our own, ELDER ADAMS. The second is whom we serve, Jesus Christ.

I testify that Jesus is the Christ. He is my Lord and Master, and I love Him dearly.

I hope that I can merit the blessed title of servant from His lips.

-Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 7.15.09

Good day everyone!

Last night was another "Night of Music and Inspiration". I sang a solo arrangement of "This Is the Christ" It went well but I always end up wishing I had more time to put in to preparing it, BUT that will be for another time of my life when I have a different focus!

Things are going well in Derwood, before the Night of Music and Inspiration we took Mary to the Visitor's Center to watch the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie. She enjoyed it.

Next week is transfers, we're not really sure what's going to happen. Most likely I will stay, and everyone else in the appartment is up in the air, but we saw how much ground that held last time, so we'll just have to see!

My Spiritual Thought this week comes from the Book of Mormon, in the Book of Mosiah, 13th Chapter, 9th verse, wherein the prophet Abinadi makes his bold declaration in the face of certain death, which reads: "But I finish my message; and then it matters not whither I go, if it so be that I am saved."

Each of us has the opportunity and the responsibility to discover our standing with God. We can know where we stand, if we but ask him. There is great power in knowing the answer to that question, "Who's On The Lord's Side Who?" and knowing that the answer is "I am!"

That we may all be on His side is my prayer.

-Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 7.8.09

And a GOOOD WEDNESDAY Everyone!

I've probably mentioned before that so far every single transfer has gone by faster then the preceeding transfer. But this one has just gotten MEAN. This transfer every week has gone by faster. I feel like I just talked to all of you, and here we are again, all of you expecting something inspiring, me trying to remember what even happened to the last 7 days, and realizing that in what must be about 12 hours I'll be writing next weeks epistle.

At least the highlight for the weeks is easy to pick.

Stefanie Pollard's baptismal service took place at 4:30pm on Sunday. It was a beautiful service, with some wonderful talks. The baptism (the wtaer part) went by without a single slip up (Sometimes they take a couple tries to get everything right). I sang "I am a Child of God" A Capella, which was a unique challenge as it was fast Sunday, and normally I drink LARGE ammounts of water preceeding any vocal performance! Makes life exciting.

Our most promising investigator right now is named Mary. Her story starts with Netta. Netta has been a member for a little under a year now. She gave us a call last week and said "Elders! My Daughter-In-Law and grand-daughter are coming in to town next week! I want you to come meet them!"

So, we came over Wednesday, right after they both woke up from their post-flying nap. (Netta's Grand-daughter, by the way, is 6 months old). We met them, had a nice chat and left. A day later Mary ran in to us as we were out on the street talking to people and she started chatting with us. We walked with her and basically taught her an entire first lesson (Which is about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the Prophet Joseph Smith). She liked it and said she'd be at church on sunday. She liked that too, and she invited us over for dinner tonight and will be feeding us "Chicken Spaghetti" I assume an Arkansas staple food :)

Other then that not tons to report. I love you all and hope you're all doing well.

The gospel is true, Jesus Christ's atonement is real, God IS our Loving Heavenly Father and the life is the time for men to prepare to meet God.

What more could you want to know?

-Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 7.1.09

Dearest friends, families, acquaintances, extended families, friends of families, ward members, interested readers, and uninterested readers who feel compelled to read:

To all of you I say, Good Wednesday!

This past week has gone by exceedingly quickly. So much so that I'm struggling to think of what to relate to you.

Stefanie Pollard, who is scheduled for baptism this coming Sunday (July 5) passed her interview with President Mansell on Monday. That was exciting.

Yesterday was CDM (Combined District Meeting) where we have a large meeting of missionaries as well as each getting our personal interviews with President. I always enjoy that so it was nice.

The weather is heating up. I've contemplated launching massive chunks of ice in a high adventure, space flying sci-fi assault on the sun, and believe I have, in fact, solved our global warming problems... now to invent the launcher...

I'm really not sure what else to relate...

As missionaries we receive a lot of heckling. Yesterday as we talked to a young man (20) on the street a man driving by in a jeep yelled out, "Don't Believe It!" Even back home when I was with the missionaries someone yelled out, "Go to Church!" We responded quickly be yelling back "Ok, Come with us!" On other occasions people have yelled things not quite so civil, and not quite so worthy of relating to you, since it would consist mostly of random assortments of symbols (ie. *#@!%)

Now upon hearing of this, many of you might be inclined to feel sorry for us, the missionary.. but the funny thing is, it really doesn't bother us very much. I feel very sorry for these poor people.

If you take a moment to reflect on the times in your life when you have said something mean to someone or about someone or really anything mean in general, you will find that each time generated a very similar feeling within you. We can refer to that feeling as "contention", and be as confident as our several beliefs in God are, that that feeling is from the Devil. Regardless of any belief in God however, we can ALL agree that it is not a pleasant feeling.

Based on this understanding of how WE feel when we say something mean or contentious, you can understand why I feel so sorry for these people who wreck a precious moment in their lives by yelling such mean things at such harmless people as ourselves, who are crazy enough to (or who have a stong enough testimony of the gospel to) give up 2 years of our lives, and pay to walk around on the streets in a white shirt and tie to try and help people be more happy.

But, we can't change them. We can change us.

Galatians 5:22 reads:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering,gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

These are feelings we can all recognize, and are feelings which the spirit of the devil is in exact opposition towards. Let us learn to recognize both of these feelings, and govern our words upon this test: "When I say these words, will I feel the 'Fruit of the spirit' as described in Galatians 5:22, or will I feel that nasty feeling of contention?"

As we do so we will find joy in our lives, and create joy in the lives of those around us, and there is no more Godly pursuit than this.

I love you all.
Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 6.24.09

Well folks, we are on borrowed time at the moment. This will be short.

I told you last week I was praying for humility. Believe me that the opportunities for this blessed attribute to grow have been forthcoming. I will share my favorite one that has happened, and we will be finished till next week.

Sunday was what we call a "Why I Believe" Fireside. It takes place in a 600 seat theatre, and consists of a couple of Recent Converts talking about how they came to believe, and then a couple of long time members speaking about why they believe. The Key-Note speaker was Senator Warren Hatch of Utah, so the crowd was big.

One of the Recent Convert speakers, however, was Sandrah Shedrick, one of the ladies that I started teaching while I was in Anacostia, and was baptized a week after I got transferred out. I was very excited, and so proud to see her get up there and talk about her testimony. She is such a wonderful lady!

Often when these Recent Converts speak they speak about their first two missionaries, and it can be a nice little feel good embarassing experience for the missionaries, and I (proudly?) awaited her to mention that I had been one of the missionaries for such an incredible new member of the church, well spoken and with a powerful testimony.

So, she got to a certain part of her talk, and said And my missionaries were Great! Where is Elder Brooks? (My first companion, who taught her with me) I know you're here Elder Brooks! (He raised his hand) There you are! Elder Brooks is my FAVORITE!" And then she went on with her talk! AND while this happened I was sitting on the front row and she knew I was right there! Everyone laughed that she had embarassed Elder Brooks, and I could only grin, with a silent, humorous prayer in my heart, "God, thank you for this opportunity to become more humble".

The good times are always rolling =]

I love you all,
Stuff my Mailbox,

Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 6.17.09

Good Wednesday Friends, Family, Associates, Aquaintances, and Curious Readers! It is a good wednesday in deed!

Today has been a nice relaxing day, We've spent most of the day playing various games. We played Rook and Eucre this morning in our kitchen, then went over to a recent convert's house to play Risk with him. He's a retired old man with no family so he likes spending time with us, and Risk on P-Day is an A-OK thing to do. So that has been a prety fun day!

In other news, the appartment I'm in right now is VERY nice. Missionaries take horrible care of appartments, and normally the appartments we're put in are pretty... cheap, to start with so they often aren't the most agreeable places to be. This appartment was redone, and the missionaries just moved in about 2.5 weeks ago. The appliances are nice, there is enough hot water for all of us to take showers, the showers aren't gross, the kitchen is clean, the carpets are nice, everything is very good!

On top of that I have a very good companion right now. He is very hard working. My last stint of companions I have been in positions where I'm there to help them, to minister to them and help them grow... this time if anything Elder Kelly is building me up. It's very humbling but I like it! So I'm very excited!

The area we're in is also really cool. There are lots of good people.

I suppose the most interesting thing that's going on right now is that I finally gave in and started praying earnestly for something that I've been afraid to pray for in the past... I've been praying for the Lord to humble me.

In the past I've prayed that he would give me humility so that I wouldn't have to be humbled, and other such things as that, but I've always held back a little, shied away a little from finally just saying, "Humble me, whatever you decide to do, do it but humble me so I can progress".

It has been interesting to see what is happening since then. Ever since I was set apart as a missionary I've found teaching pretty easy, I normally have a good idea what to say.. lately it has been different. I'll be sitting in a teaching appointment, or standing at a door, and listening to my companion teach, and there will be just nothing coming in to my head. It's so bad that I've pretty much given up and am just going to let him keep teaching, and then, almost like a light switch turned on there will be words coming out of my mouth before I know it. The transition is so sudden and startling, and has so little to do with any thought process within my mind that it leaves little room for doubt that the sudden burst of teaching comes from an outside source. This is nice because it allows me to be happy that something was taught powerfully and well through me, without becoming prideful in "my" ability to teach.

I'm striving to hold less and less back from the Lord. Of most of us he will not require us to give up everything we have, but he will require our willingness to give up everything we have. We must strive to within our own heart, soul, and mind consecrate everything we have to him, and rejoice in what he allows us to keep. As we do so, humility and a deep sense of our reliance upon Him who created all things comes as a natural consequence. This process starts with our inner thoughts. We change the way we think by choosing how we think. When we think a thought that goes against our new set course of thinking, we correct ourselves within our own heads, showing our integrity to no one but God and ourselves, and as we do this our thought patterns, behavior, and relationship with God will transform to a higher level.

But alas, I delve perhaps deeper than is helpful in my epistles.

I would love to hear your thoughts on such subjects as self perfection, and maybe together we'll figure out how to reach Exaltation :)

I love you all.

Stuff my mailbox,
Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 6.10.09

Hello Everyone!

Today makes 9 months since I reported to the MTC. At the beginning of my mission people told me that transfers would just keep going by faster and faster, and I wasn't quite sure I believed them. Now the transfers are starting to go by in the blink of an eye, and I can hardly imagine how they can get any faster... but I'm assured they will!

Speaking of transfers, I was transferred to the Durwood East area. In this area I am replacing a legend in our mission named Elder Vincent. He was recently released from being Assistant to the President, and is an incredible missionary. It's pretty exciting to be going in to an area he just left and seeing how he ran the area while he was here. Plus that means that the area is very productive right now.

So that is the exciting NEW stuff. We live with the Durwood/Olney Elders. One of which is my Previous companion from Capitol Hill, Elder Hayden. His companion is Elder Frizzell.

Ok, so then we have this week past, and hopefully some cool missionary experiences (I suppose that's why you all read this anyways right?)

We had a fun instance this week of Revelation. I told you last week about our appointment with Ralph, who was not very receptive to the spirit. We set up a return appointment for the next Monday (two days ago), but were pretty nervous to go back, because if someone can't feel the spirit testifying of truth, then it just becomes a war of words where nothing is accomplished, which I don't like. So it got to Sunday and we were trying to decide if we should go to the appointment, or just cancel it. We each had our oppinions and then decided to take the matter to the Lord.

After inquiring as to what we should do in Prayer, Elder Durfee and I both received an answer from the spirit. We both felt that we should try to go to the appointment and try to teach Ralph, and give him a chance, but we also both felt instructed that the appointment the next day (monday) would not hold.

So, Monday morning we received a phone call from Ralph, and he told us something had come up and he wouldn't be able to do the appointment that day and needed to reschedule. Elder Durfee and I both just sort of smiled at each other, knowing that the Lord had told us beforehand what would happen.

Well I'm very excited to be in my new area. I love receiving mail from those who send it. It's great to hear about what is going on in your lives!

I love you all!
Stuff my mailbox!
-Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 5.27.09

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Lets see lets see, what are some highlights from this week?

We received a very cool referral from our Zone Leader, Elder Thornock. He is in the Spanish program and covers much of the same area we do, only for spanish speaking people. As I mentioned last week I've been talking in spanish a lot, and whenever I do I try to get people's information to give to Elder Thornock and his companion to be taught in Spanish. Elder Thornock goes home in about 2 weeks, so he's served ~2 years, and he called and told us that in his entire mission he has never had a referral from the English speaking missionaries that went anywhere, until this transfer. He has had 4 very promising investigators from our area this transfer and its the first time it's happened in his whole mission! I should add that a couple of those referrals were able to speak enough English that Elder Durfee actually got the referral, so it's not just me at work, but still that was a very cool call to receive.

And a sort of funny story. We were preparing to leave our appartment a couple nights ago, and it was sort of cloudy. I asked Elder Durfee if he thought it was going to rain, and he said probably not. About 10 minutes later we were in a torrential downpour :)

I yelled ahead that we should pull in to a tunnel on the bike path ahead of us and see if it was going to blow over. You see the problem is that when missionaries are soaking wet, most people don't want us to come in to their houses and sit on their couches and teach them! So we pulled in and began to wait. The rain just got harder and harder. Soon the paved path we had biked up to the tunnel looked more like a muddy river, with so much water running down it we couldn't even see the pavement beneath. Elder Durfee came up with the very smart idea that we bike back to the appartment and organize our records and call some people we needed to talk to and such. That sounded really smart to me but I said, "Well, let's pray about it".

So, we each took off our helmets and bowed our heads and said a silent prayer. Each of us started that prayer fully knowing that biking home was the most reasonable thing to do, and expecting to receive a spiritual confirmation that we were right. I finished my prayer and looked over to Elder Durfee right as he finished his prayer, and saw that he had a look of consternation on his face. He looked over to me to see a big grin on my face, and he started to grin too. "Well, let's go get wet!" I said, and off we went in to a ridiculous rain storm. It had only been raining about 25 minutes and we were biking through puddles that submerged half of our wheels. It was quite amazing.

The point of this is that even though I didn't really want to go get soaking wet, it is just so reassuring to know that I could seek the will of the Lord, get an answer of what I should do (That might not be what I want to do!) and then go and do it.

I love you all, and appreciate your prayers, support, and letters.

Till next week!

Fill my mailbox,
Elder Ted E. Bear