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

Fwd: FW: Epistle - 3.25.09

Good Wednesday everyone!

It's been another wonderful week in the mission field!

Tyrone had an interview with President Mansell on Sunday, and passed! He is ready to be baptized this coming Sunday, and I will be performing the baptism. Very cool. Tyrone has been a lot of fun to work with. He has trouble understanding things but has such a strong desire to be right with God. Because he is being baptized the week before General Conference he will either be confirmed there at the baptism or two weeks later on Easter. Bishop will make that decision by Sunday.

Selena wasn't able to be confirmed last week because she was staying in the Hospital with a friend who's Husband was getting ready to pass. So she will be Confirmed this coming Sunday.

I've been having a lot of fun in my personal study lately preparing a talk for this coming Zone Conference on Friday. The task is to prepare a 5 minute "enlightening message" on the second bullet-point from the Consider This box on page 115 of "Preach My Gospel" (For those that have a copy). For those that don't, it reads, "How will developing Christlike Attributes help me fulfill my purpose as a missioary?" (As I remember it at least) It has been a very interesting talk to prepare, and I always find I study better when I am preparing a talk or workshop so I've enjoyed having the assignment. Hopefully I will have finished polishing it by Friday!

Other fun news for Friday, that morning we will wake up, metro down to the Suitland Stake Center (About 40 minutes) for Zone Conference, leave Zone Conference around 1:30 to Metro back home, then we have to be back down at the Suitland Stake Center at 7:00 to be part of a missioanry chorus singing with some Primary kids at a Stake Musical night. That will be an interesting day!

Everything out here is going really well. I hope all of you are well. I love hearing from you when you write!

Stuff my mailbox,
Love,
Elder Ted E. Bear

Fwd: FW: Epistle - 3.11.09

Hello Everyone!

My dad is constantly reminding me that I should be talking about the people I'm working with. So I thought I would try to do that today.

It is something I find very difficult, given that I only have 15-20 minutes to write this Epistle, and the EXTREMELY complicated nature of just about everyone I work with. I find it hard to even begin.

A very good portion of the people I work with on a day to day basis are practically (or in many cases literally and medically) insane. And it's really not their fault. I spend most of my time in the Ghetto. I would guess there is a 10% employment rate or so (if that). Most everyone is living off of welfare, in Goverment housing. The ones who ARE employed generally have massive Cadillacs or H2's, HUGE flat-screen TV's, and not enough money to put food on the table. As someone coming from a nice little ritzy Suburb, it's something I'm really not sure how to explain to all of you back home. The term "Baby-Mother" and "Baby-Father" is far more prevalent then "Husband" and "Wife". As missionaries we practically start salivating when someone we talk to on the street says something about being married.

Of the specific people we work with.

Selena is a complete sweet-heart. She is an older lady who is a widow. She lived with her druggy daughter for a while in Anacostia, but now has her own appartment two floors down from us in the high-rise we live in. Several years ago she decided to get closer to God. She gave up Alcohol and Drugs, and started faithfully attending church. She went to a REALLY weird church, which according to her charged 30% tithes, and had most of their sermons consist of a man ranting at the ladies for wearing too much make-up. When we came in to her home and actually taught her something about God, she was hooked. When we taught her the Plan of Salvation she just kept saying "Oh My Gosh. I never heard of this at my church!" Assuming the swelling in her legs isn't too bad, she will be baptized this coming Sunday.

Tyrone. Tyrone has met with, and stopped meeting with, at least two other sets of missionaries before we got here, but never been able to understand their message. Somehow in meeting with us this time he became convinced that we would lead him the right way towards God, and he could trust us. He's willing to basically do whatever we say. The only thing that has been keeping him from baptism is that he needs to know for himself that it is true before we can let him make that Covenant. His whole family grew up singing, they used to sing Gospel as a family at a church. He now lives in his deceased mother's home. He has no job, and if you ask him his career he'll say he's a singer but that he hasn't done that in a while. He lives off his monthly government check. He is very humble and knows that his comprehension "aint all that goood, man" but truly wants to do the right thing. I've come to love him very dearly.

Darryl. Darryl spent the last 5 years homeless after his wife apparently kicked him out of his own home that he built. He has a problem with Alcohol. He was making progress until the last time we went over there. He was drunk, and apparently his "fiance" (whom he had not been dating a week before) had moved in with him. As we were leaving he gave me a big hug, gave me a kiss on the neck and cheek, and said "I love you". We were all laughing pretty hard about the kisses. We've been meeting with Darryl for the past couple months, and we think we're about to lose him, which is really too bad.

Ok now I'm out of time.

I'm doing really well. I'm learning so much. I don't have the time I wish I did to communicate with all of you, but know that I am having the time of my life. I love these people so much, and find such great joy in watching them grow in the gospel. Yesterday was my 6 month mark. I plan on making the next 18 months even better!

I love you all
-Elder Ted E. Bear

Pictures From The Field

Some recent pics from Elder Bear. Lookin' good, kid!! I love how he's only smiling when he's at a baptism...