November 29, 2010

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Hello Family,

Thanksgiving was great, I got super fat from it. We had lunch with brother and sister Myers. Then went from lunch straight to a dinner at the elders quorum  presidents house.  After that dinner we had a desert at another members home. It was really ironic because the desert was at the Corray's. Sister Corray is the sister to Richard Evans wife. Small world huh. They said that they love the Taber area are are jealous that you are getting so much snow.  It was all around a good thanksgiving except the whole homesick crap. But oh well. This morning we got the calls from the A.P.'s and I am getting transferred on Wednesday,I still don't know where but I will let you know as soon as I can. As for our investigators they are slow as molasses going up hill on a cold day. They all seem like they are not progressing, it is super frustrating. David is getting closer to baptism we will be meeting with him on Tuesday and we will be also taking him to a baptismal service in Columbia city, so that he can see what one is like. He is about the only one that seems like they are progressing.  All the others have a super hard time keeping appointments with us. It really annoys the living daylights out of me,  because they all have a tremendous amount of potential and I can see them as future leaders in the church.

As for Indiana it is super cold and no snow yet, but we do have that stupid humidity that is kicking in.  On the plus side the house that I have been working on I ended  up  getting out of doing the siding but the bathroom is almost done I will be finishing it tomorrow evening before I get transferred. I will send some pictures of the tile and the grout that I did. I think that it looks pretty good.

Sounds like everything is going great. I hope to hear from you all soon.

Love Elder Bair

November 22, 2010

Hey Dad,

Happy Thanksgiving to you and to the family also. This week has been pretty amazing Elder Udy and I have had a lot of appointments with potential investigators. It has been awesome, things are slowly picking up again I think that it is because of the holiday season. We were able to invite 2 different people to baptism. It was great, hopefully they will continue to read the book of Mormon and continue to pray about it. The first one is Chad Wyatt, this gentle man it very interesting, as we were locking our bikes up he stopped us and told us to come by his house some time, he wanted to talk to us. Much to our surprise it was sincere. He is a very stout catholic. This worried us  because we both thought that he was just going to bible bash with us. Got me a little worried. The Lord was on our side when we went, we taught about the restoration and it was a very spiritual lesson.He said that AS he comes to know that the book of Mormon is true he would be baptised. I love that word AS, not if, but as. Great tool in teaching. The next person is a lady and her husband Jeanine and Brandon. We met then a while ago and finally came in contact with them, they are sold on the fact that families can be together forever. Now all we have to do is get them to read from the Book of Mormon and to ask God if it is true. Everything is going great all is well and is continuing to go well. For Thanksgiving we have two dinner appointments and it just so happen that they are the two families in the ward that feed us the most food. I am really scared I am getting fat. I have already gained 20 since I have left home I can't gain more or Josh will make fun of me. I can't let that happen. Everything is going well. If anyone sends mail, send it to the mission home because transfers are on the first.

Love, Elder Bair

November 15, 2010

Hey Mom,
     Everything is going great here in Fort Wayne.  Everything is going kinda slow as usual but the work is still going on.  All is well with me, I am feeling a lot better and am able to get the work done without any complications. This week has been a good week, we got Elder Crandall sent home and finally got our apartment all cleaned out and spiffy again.  On Tuesday we went to Peru for a Zone Conference.  It was amazing, it's always great to be able to get the goods from the Mission President and the assistants.  While at Zone Conference something awesome happened....Well I think that it is was awesome/funny.  I was named the biggest redneck in the mission.   I don't know if that is a bad thing or not but either way I thought it was pretty funny.  The cool thing was just being in the presence of the Mission President and his wife.  They are such great people.  It has been great this week, we have been hitting the less active really hard, dropping those spiritual bombs on them that they cannot deny.  We also have some sweet investigators.  The first one is Jeannie Mellish,  she is such an awesome lady.  She had a member boyfriend in high school.   She wants to know more.  We were able to share  that "families can be together forever" and she was sold on it.  She doesn't  quite understand the concept that baptism by proper authority so we have a lot of work to do there.  She is awesome.  That is about all that is new and exciting, hopefully something cool will come up this week.
Love you all
Elder Bair

November 8, 2010

Hey Mom,
    Everything is going great. It has been super duper cold and we finally have snow.  I will be honest, I did not come prepared.  It is so crazy bitter cold.  It blows my mind at how cold it is here.  Needless to say, it's been great.  We have been trying to reactivate alot of the less active that are in the ward.  It has been going well.  We are able to drop spirit bombs on them as lessons.  They are able to feel the spirit and are able to invite the spirit into lessons. It has been really good for them.  We actually have had one of them come back to church yesterday, it was great to see them.  Our investigators are still going good, they are not really progressing but we are doing everything that we possibly can in order for them to be able to feel the spirit enough for them to testify that they need to be active again.
     The house that I am working on is going good.  I got out of doing the whole house and I am just doing little things here and there that will not keep us from doing missionary work.  So far I am in the middle of redoing the tile in her bathroom.  It looks great.  I love doing tile and stuff like that.
     We have been riding our bikes alot lately in order for us to be able to drive the car to Zone Conference tomorrow.  This past week my bike has been super sunny so last night  I took it apart to look to see if I can fix it by myself.  I found the problem, and it is an expensive fix, the back axle was put together wrong by the assistants when they put my bike together.  It made the bearings and axle wear out and I ended up losing my bearings out of it.  This morning I took it to the bike shop that sells Trek bikes and they will be able to fix it but it is going to be a pretty penny of $85.  I was so stinking mad!
     Thursday we had a conference with President Collins, our Stake President and all of the ward members in leadership positions.  Pres. basically told them that they are not doing their part and that the missionaries are doing everything.  He had us stand and state our purpose as missionaries is to invite others, not to find them. It was great to hear two different Presidents rebuke them and tell them that they need to actually go and do something.  Hopefully their eyes will be opened to this and they will not be so lazy.  There was also a really good quote that one of them said and it stood out to me.  "The Lord Controls the Harvest".  It made me think, no matter how hard we as missionaries try to teach people, if the Lord has not prepared them, they are going nowhere.  I really thought that would make a great missionary picture also.  Two missionaries in the middle of a field teaching a farmer who is fixing his harvester.  Oh yeah!  That would make a sweet picture.
     Yesterday, on making the good-bye rounds for Elder Crandall, we stopped by a members house and he had just shot a deer and was cutting and bagging it.  I helped him do that as Elder Crandall was saying his good byes and in the end they guy gave me a bunch of deer meat.  I was so super excited even tho I was not able to shoot one, I am still able to eat one.
All is going well,  I love you tons
Elder Bair

November 1, 2010 Part 3

Mom
If you want a chocolate lab, a real good one, the lady whose house I am working on says that she will send her to you.  She reminds me of Desi, so let me know I will send some pictures.  If you don't want her and she still has her when I get done with my mission, I am bringing her home with me.
Love EJB

November 1, 2010 Part 2

Mom,
     The stuff that we are doing on the house is mostly inside so maybe just send a hoodie and some sweaters that I can wear under my suitcoat.  Garment size????Don't know, I will send you a letter with my sizes in it.  I would also like that pair of Ariat slipper boots that I have sent to me.  P-day is P-day and we are not working on the house this day.  We are only working on it 5-6 hours a week so it's not taking time out of our work to bad.  Love EJB

November 1, 2010

Hey Mom,
Thank you so much for the pictures of Makayla, she is super cute.  It's super sad that I am not able to see her till she is old and no fun anymore....not j/k, but it is a bummer.  I am so very grateful that she and Kate are doing great.  I had the feeling Wednesday that she had some.  It was a great feeling that I felt.  how is Grandma Snap doing?  I have not heard lately how she is doing,  I pray that she is still doing great and lively.
     Snow?   Wow!  That is nuts, I mean it get super cold here and there is no way that I am ready for the winter..the humidity? it is just nasty, it bites through everything.  It would be nice if you were to send me some thermal garments and an oil vial.  That cheap plastic one broke a while ago so I need a new one.  The seasons are changing and it is just beautiful, the deer are moving and the colors are great.
     It is to bad that I was not able to meet up with Scott and Wendy.  That would have been awesome, but Lord is sending them to Florida so I would not have the distraction of family in my mission. It would have been cool if I could have had that chance.  It is crazy that the people in Idaho send more referrals to Indiana than the people in Indiana do.  It's good to see that some one is willing to help the missionaries here.  I can't do anything until I am where all those referrals are at.  Maybe the next transfer I might be able to look some of them up.
     Once again I am not able to vote for my own Father and won't be till I am 21 that I will be able to vote for the first time.  Oh well, at least I tried.  Tell Dad food luck.  I hope that he winds by a landslide.  Did anyone ever run against him?  If I remember last time nobody even did.  He must be doing something right in order to do so.
     Its kinda nice to help this member in the ward rebuild her house.  It is something that I am actually good at.  We all know I am a hands on person and not a talking person.  Against my will I am becoming one fast.  I have a feeling that after this next transfer in the middle of January, I think that I will be made a Sr companion.  All of the elders that have been serving around me say that I will be made one soon.  I don't know, it will be cool to find out.
     Everything in Fort Wayne is going just as slow as ever, we are slowly but surely getting more of the wards support and their interaction with the investigators that we have is really good to see them interact with each other.  We have been trying alot of the less active and inactive families and have been able to meet with a bunch of them and are able to teach them the lessons again.  So we have been focusing alot of our  time and energy to those.  We are also teaching a lot of young kids that are 9-11 age group.  Technically they are investigators.  We have been finding out that they stay focused more if we do Book of Mormon stories.  Some of the good ones are the Title of Liberty, and Samuel the Lamanite on the wall, and the Burying the Weapons of War.  So far it has been working really well and they are slowly understanding.  Other that that everything is going great, we are having alot of fun finding different ways to teach people.
I love you all and hope all is going well.
Love Elder Bair