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