Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Epistle - 6.3.09
June! Can you believe it's June? I can't.
Happy Wednesday everyone!
So I shall try to recall what exciting things have happened since last we spoke.
One exciting thing is that I got to sing at another Night of Music and Inspiration last night. I sang La Via Dolorosa. It went very well, people seemed to like it a lot, and the spirit was very strong. When I finished the song and walked back to my seat I was simply shaking from how powerful the spirit and emotion were. It is always an honor to testify of the Savior.
In other exciting news, next week is transfers! I will find out on Monday what is happening. These transfers keep seeming to get shorter and shorter! I feel like I just got to Montgomery Village. I normally try to make a call on what might happen... but this one is just very, very up in the air. Chances are I will stay, but one, or both, or neither of my companions might leave. It's just hard to say.
We had a difficult lesson yesterday with someone who was just not able to hear the spirit. He was incredibly smart and learned in the Bible, and most of what he had learned was true. We recounted to him Joseph Smith's vision in 1820. In that vision Joseph is first assaulted by the adversary, who does not want him to succeed, and is the delivered from that devil by God in a glorious visitation. As I have become more sensitive to the spirit I am amazed by how distinctly I can feel the two different presences in the recounting. This man read the whole story, looked up at us and told us that obviously the visitation was actually a demonic posession. The spirit fled the room, it would not be present in the presence of such an outright falsehood.
After the lesson Elder Durfee commented that the Spirit of God never wants to shock us or scare us, while the spirit of the devil will try to jump us and scare us in to doing or not doing something. I commented that the Spirit of God must be invited to enter in to a place, while the Spirit of the Devil tries to force its way in unbidden. It was interesting.
Well perhaps that's a little deep to be pondering. But I have found it interesting, as I grow more and more sensitive to the spirit, it has become so increasingly apparent that this Gospel, this Church, this Work is true. Every time I speak of it's truth the Spirit of God burns within me testifying that it is so. Every time I hear it defamed by anyone the spirit cries out that these words are not true, that these falsehoods will stand as witnesses against those who work iniquity at the last day.
Perhaps my Father is right to call me his Ultra-Deep son, but what else is a missionary supposed to think about? =]
Hope you are all doing wonderfully. I love you all so much and appreciate your prayers, letters, and thoughts.
Please take care of yourselves and stuff my mailbox!
-Elder Ted E. Bear
Happy Wednesday everyone!
So I shall try to recall what exciting things have happened since last we spoke.
One exciting thing is that I got to sing at another Night of Music and Inspiration last night. I sang La Via Dolorosa. It went very well, people seemed to like it a lot, and the spirit was very strong. When I finished the song and walked back to my seat I was simply shaking from how powerful the spirit and emotion were. It is always an honor to testify of the Savior.
In other exciting news, next week is transfers! I will find out on Monday what is happening. These transfers keep seeming to get shorter and shorter! I feel like I just got to Montgomery Village. I normally try to make a call on what might happen... but this one is just very, very up in the air. Chances are I will stay, but one, or both, or neither of my companions might leave. It's just hard to say.
We had a difficult lesson yesterday with someone who was just not able to hear the spirit. He was incredibly smart and learned in the Bible, and most of what he had learned was true. We recounted to him Joseph Smith's vision in 1820. In that vision Joseph is first assaulted by the adversary, who does not want him to succeed, and is the delivered from that devil by God in a glorious visitation. As I have become more sensitive to the spirit I am amazed by how distinctly I can feel the two different presences in the recounting. This man read the whole story, looked up at us and told us that obviously the visitation was actually a demonic posession. The spirit fled the room, it would not be present in the presence of such an outright falsehood.
After the lesson Elder Durfee commented that the Spirit of God never wants to shock us or scare us, while the spirit of the devil will try to jump us and scare us in to doing or not doing something. I commented that the Spirit of God must be invited to enter in to a place, while the Spirit of the Devil tries to force its way in unbidden. It was interesting.
Well perhaps that's a little deep to be pondering. But I have found it interesting, as I grow more and more sensitive to the spirit, it has become so increasingly apparent that this Gospel, this Church, this Work is true. Every time I speak of it's truth the Spirit of God burns within me testifying that it is so. Every time I hear it defamed by anyone the spirit cries out that these words are not true, that these falsehoods will stand as witnesses against those who work iniquity at the last day.
Perhaps my Father is right to call me his Ultra-Deep son, but what else is a missionary supposed to think about? =]
Hope you are all doing wonderfully. I love you all so much and appreciate your prayers, letters, and thoughts.
Please take care of yourselves and stuff my mailbox!
-Elder Ted E. Bear
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
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
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
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Epistle - 5.20.09
Happy Wednesday Everyone!
Another wonderful and interesting week in the service of the Lord.
This weekend one of my companions (Elder Durfee) was gone from us Friday-Sunday because another Elder had surgery and needed 3 days to recover. Because there are 3 of us one of us went to fill in his place and work his area with his companion. So I got to spend the weekend with just Elder Cox which was an interesting experience.
Exciting news is that Aleta Maxwell and her 12 year old son Simon came to church on Sunday, then came to the "Why I Believe" fireside at the Visitor's Center at 7pm, and Simon came to Mutual on Tuesday night *BIG GRIN!* The Maxwell family is an amazing, intelligent powerhouse of a family, who will be a great assett to the church. It's fun to be working with someone like them when we spend a lot of time teaching people who have been compelled to be humble enough to receive the Gospel, and while they need the Gospel many of them won't necessarily be assetts to the church. The Maxwells are very cool and we're excited to see them progressing.
Sister Bradshaw (Whom I mentioned in last weeks letter) came to church on Sunday and brought her Roomate, who is now going to be an investigator. That's very exciting as well!
Today was our Zone Activity, and we all played Dodgeball, some Beach Volleyball, some Speed, and some guys sat in the corner and played Magic. I think Everyone had a good time, and it's nice to relax with fellow laborers in the vineyard and have a good time.
The weather has been simply gorgeous lately. It's been very nice.
Oh some other exciting news. I have been getting to use my Spanish a LOT lately. There are a lot of spanish people in this area, and there are spanish Elders that cover our area, but as we knock doors or talk to people on the street or whatever we do, whenever we run in to a spanish person my companions turn to me and I just start teaching. It's really cool that the Lord is using everything I've got in his work.
Well folks. The church is true. The Book of Mormon is one of the most precious gifts we've been given on this earth. The work and Glory of our Heavenly Father is to bring to pass the immortality and Eternal Life of man. When we are in the service of our fellow man we are only in the service of our God, and we serve our fellow men best by helping them to received the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ through Faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentence, baptism for the remission of sins, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End.
As our Mission President told us in our last Zone Conference, "Love the Members, and help them do THEIR Missionary Work". Full time missionaries are strangers in your land. These people are friends, relatives, co-workers and neighbors of you. The Members. Go do your missionary work and may God bless you in it.
-Elder Ted E. Bear
Another wonderful and interesting week in the service of the Lord.
This weekend one of my companions (Elder Durfee) was gone from us Friday-Sunday because another Elder had surgery and needed 3 days to recover. Because there are 3 of us one of us went to fill in his place and work his area with his companion. So I got to spend the weekend with just Elder Cox which was an interesting experience.
Exciting news is that Aleta Maxwell and her 12 year old son Simon came to church on Sunday, then came to the "Why I Believe" fireside at the Visitor's Center at 7pm, and Simon came to Mutual on Tuesday night *BIG GRIN!* The Maxwell family is an amazing, intelligent powerhouse of a family, who will be a great assett to the church. It's fun to be working with someone like them when we spend a lot of time teaching people who have been compelled to be humble enough to receive the Gospel, and while they need the Gospel many of them won't necessarily be assetts to the church. The Maxwells are very cool and we're excited to see them progressing.
Sister Bradshaw (Whom I mentioned in last weeks letter) came to church on Sunday and brought her Roomate, who is now going to be an investigator. That's very exciting as well!
Today was our Zone Activity, and we all played Dodgeball, some Beach Volleyball, some Speed, and some guys sat in the corner and played Magic. I think Everyone had a good time, and it's nice to relax with fellow laborers in the vineyard and have a good time.
The weather has been simply gorgeous lately. It's been very nice.
Oh some other exciting news. I have been getting to use my Spanish a LOT lately. There are a lot of spanish people in this area, and there are spanish Elders that cover our area, but as we knock doors or talk to people on the street or whatever we do, whenever we run in to a spanish person my companions turn to me and I just start teaching. It's really cool that the Lord is using everything I've got in his work.
Well folks. The church is true. The Book of Mormon is one of the most precious gifts we've been given on this earth. The work and Glory of our Heavenly Father is to bring to pass the immortality and Eternal Life of man. When we are in the service of our fellow man we are only in the service of our God, and we serve our fellow men best by helping them to received the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ through Faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentence, baptism for the remission of sins, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End.
As our Mission President told us in our last Zone Conference, "Love the Members, and help them do THEIR Missionary Work". Full time missionaries are strangers in your land. These people are friends, relatives, co-workers and neighbors of you. The Members. Go do your missionary work and may God bless you in it.
-Elder Ted E. Bear
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Fwd: FW: Epistle - 5.13.09
Hello Everyone!
Hope everyone has had a wonderful week. As last Sunday was Mother's day I got to call home and talk to my family. That was a wonderful treat. Thank you family for taking the time to talk to a far away Elder!
So.. what is new this week! We had a fun experience. We had a referral named Daniel who ordered a free DVD from us. We had contacted him once and set up an appointment to meet with him. He wasn't home for the appointment, we called him and he said he'd be home in 5 minutes... he never showed up. So a couple weeks later we were checking on him, and a man we hadn't met answered the door, said they were busy and closed the door. Moments later a lady answered the door and said that Daniel had moved out, that she was moving in to the house, that she used to be a member of the church but stopped living the commandments and had requested her names removed at one point, but was so happy to see us she thought it was a miracle. She had a great desire to come back to full activity. We were very grateful to be sent where the Lord needed us to go when the Lord needed us to be there. It is such a great blessing to be in his service.
I constantly learn more and more that there is a loving Father in Heaven who cares for us and every detail of our lives.
I love you all and pray for you. Always turn to Him with your problems and you will find solace.
-Elder Ted E. Bear
Hope everyone has had a wonderful week. As last Sunday was Mother's day I got to call home and talk to my family. That was a wonderful treat. Thank you family for taking the time to talk to a far away Elder!
So.. what is new this week! We had a fun experience. We had a referral named Daniel who ordered a free DVD from us. We had contacted him once and set up an appointment to meet with him. He wasn't home for the appointment, we called him and he said he'd be home in 5 minutes... he never showed up. So a couple weeks later we were checking on him, and a man we hadn't met answered the door, said they were busy and closed the door. Moments later a lady answered the door and said that Daniel had moved out, that she was moving in to the house, that she used to be a member of the church but stopped living the commandments and had requested her names removed at one point, but was so happy to see us she thought it was a miracle. She had a great desire to come back to full activity. We were very grateful to be sent where the Lord needed us to go when the Lord needed us to be there. It is such a great blessing to be in his service.
I constantly learn more and more that there is a loving Father in Heaven who cares for us and every detail of our lives.
I love you all and pray for you. Always turn to Him with your problems and you will find solace.
-Elder Ted E. Bear
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Epistle - 5.6.09
Hello Everyone!
Time is very short. Yesterday was actually our P-Day because the entire mission went to a Baseball Game, the Nationals vs. the Astros. It ate up our P-Day and we got permission to E-Mail BRIEFLY today. The game was a lot of fun!
The area I'm in is very fun. It reminds me a lot of the older parts of Issaquah, lots of very friendly people. Plus the weather has been constantly overcast and drizzling since I got here but I'm told that's sort of unusual... feels like home to me!
I love you all and I'm having a lot of fun. I know that the Gospel is truly restored and that the Lord blesses us with the strength to do his work. It will not always be easy but if it was we wouldn't be earning our salvation.
Take care. Pray Always and be strong!
-Elder Ted E. Bear
Time is very short. Yesterday was actually our P-Day because the entire mission went to a Baseball Game, the Nationals vs. the Astros. It ate up our P-Day and we got permission to E-Mail BRIEFLY today. The game was a lot of fun!
The area I'm in is very fun. It reminds me a lot of the older parts of Issaquah, lots of very friendly people. Plus the weather has been constantly overcast and drizzling since I got here but I'm told that's sort of unusual... feels like home to me!
I love you all and I'm having a lot of fun. I know that the Gospel is truly restored and that the Lord blesses us with the strength to do his work. It will not always be easy but if it was we wouldn't be earning our salvation.
Take care. Pray Always and be strong!
-Elder Ted E. Bear
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
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
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