Monday, March 21, 2016

Week 30 - Wild Week - Getting ready for a baptism!!!

Hey Everyone,
     Sorry,  I forgot to write you last week. But WOW a lot has happened this week!  But in a good way. We started out the week alright. I went on two exchanges. One with Elder Kiloti from Salt Lake. He is Tongan. He is pretty funny!  And then I went with Elder Finlayson from Alpine. He was pretty cool. It was super fun! But here is where everything gets crazy!  So we met with the Meiners 4 times.  Once on Friday at their house. Then once on Saturday at the DC Temple Visitors' Center. And then twice on Sunday. Once at church. And then once for dinner after. Anyways at the Visitors' Center Sister Meiners said she wants to be baptized before Sister Hill leaves!  So we are like ok. This will be an adventure. But let's go for it. So we got this whole week planned out. What we have to do for every day up until the baptism on Saturday night! It's pretty crazy. I am super excited. 
    When we meet with them in Friday we gave her a blessing of comfort. And it was great. She really enjoyed it!  And then on Saturday at the temple visitor center. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And about what the temple is and what happens there. It was great! And that's when she said she wanted to get baptized.  
     And then Sunday we taught a lot. And just basically filled in all the gaps needed to prepare her for baptism. It was great. They are awesome. 
      It is so exciting to see someone learn about the gospel and the ask about it. And receive an answer and the desire to change their life. It is great! It's what the gospel is for.  And I know how it will bless her family. I am so excited for them! 
     I hope you all had a good week. I did.  
Love, Elder Bigelow 
View from the Meiner's balcony.


Elder Bigelow and Elder Skousen

Teaching at the Meiner's

Week 29 - No cast for Elder Skousen

(Mom note...no email to everyone this week, so I am posting parts of my email from Elder Bigelow!)

Hey mom, 
       This week has been a pretty good. Elder Skousen got his cast off. He is now in a walking boot.  It is super nice. I don't have to carry all his stuff or put his scooter in the trunk all the time. And now he can help clean the apartment. It was kinda a pain before. Especially since the other Falls Church elders are always in our apartment. So it is like doing the dishes for four people and the trash for four people. Four college age guys. Which piles up sometimes. So it's really nice. 
   This week I went on exchange with one of the other elders in Falls Church. Elder bishop. He is a good guy. He is from a small town in Colorado. He has some animals there. But all around just a good hard working guy. I really like him. I went on a run with him. It was nice to get out of the apartment in the fresh morning air. I had planned for about two miles. But it ended up about 3.5. With big hills. So we were both pretty sore. It was good though. It felt really nice. 
    It hit 85 this week. It was pretty hot. But it is nice. All the blossoms are starting to come in. And it is super pretty. I can't wait to go to the cherry blossom festival this year. It is supposed to be super pretty. The peak is supposed to be next Monday. So we will go into DC for that. 
     We had a lesson with the Meiners this week. It was really good. Mitch the husband wasn't there. He was out of town. But Ashley was there. We didn't teach a set lesson. We talked about the Book of Mormon and we read part of Alma 32. It went really well. And we had some members there. And it was super spiritual. They did a great job of adding testimony. And we just went in a circle and took turns reading. And it went well!  This week I think we are going to the temple visitor center with them. I will get a picture with them there so that I can show you. They are great. Not as excited as they were before. But I think that they still want to know. They are just getting a little push back from their family. 
     It is kinda sad, the Hills are leaving for China on Easter. And they are the ones that invited the Meiners. So that will be kind of an adjustment. But it will still be good. It will just be kinda weird. I feel like half the ward leaves this summer. It would be like a whole new ward. 
  Thanks for the package. It was great. I love the socks. Now I won't get pinched on St Patrick's day. And it is good to have a little green in the apartment. It makes it feel a lot more festive. And packages are always the best. 
      Man I hate Daylight Savings as a missionary. You have to wake up an hour earlier. And it just throws off your whole day. 
     That's great to hear that Cat had a good time at her tournament.  It stinks she didn't win. But it's cool that she had fun and that she still likes it. 
    Good luck with class this week. That will be an adventure. But it will be fun. I think that it will all work out. It usually does. So don't worry too much. 
      I love you and miss you. It is cool to go into homes with families that you just know they can have fun together. It makes me miss home a little. But it is like home away from home. I hope things are going well at home. I love you! 
    
Love, Elder Bigelow
On their way into the Visitor's Center at the DC temple.



Week 28 - Staying in Falls Church

Hey everyone,
      Well transfers came out on Tuesday night. And I am here in Falls
Church for one more transfer. I am actually really excited for this. I
know I am here for a reason. I love this area. And I am really excited
to still be here. We had a lesson on Friday with this family we are
teaching. And it went really well. The spirit was there and they
understood. They said they would take what they take what we taught
them and they would ask God if what we are telling them is true. And I
think that they actually will. It was funny during the lesson he kept
talking about the warm fuzzy feeling that would tell him if it was
true. And they could defiantly feel the spirit there. That same
feeling.  They didn't come to church yesterday. But they made sure to
let us know that it is because they were sick. Not because they didn't
appreciate the lesson or that they were upset about anything. So that
is great! They are my favorite.
       I think that it is a miracle all this is happening. And I know
that working with members is so important. The other elders in our
ward are also teaching two people that are all because they worked
with a member on it. It is great.
      This week I learned that there is a purpose for everything.
Before transfers I felt like I was kinda just going through the
motions. But then once I saw that I am staying here I realized that
wow. This is pretty uncommon. There is a reason behind why I am still
here. And that if I do my best to work my hardest here I will find it
and do it! The Lord trusts me enough to be here for 6 more weeks. So I
think I should be able to do what He asks.
     This week has been great! I love the spirit and all that I learn
from it! It is great!  I hope you all have a great week coming up.
It's up to You!
 
Love, Elder Bigelow 

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Week 27 - Blitzes

This week...
This week was really good, we decided to go on a couple blitzes. They
were super fun. For those of you who don't know what a blitz is, it
is when you get together with a couple other missionaries and come
together and just tract out a whole complex or street or something.
Anyways we got all four of the Falls Church elders. And all four
Annandale elders. And we came together and just knocked out a couple
complexes. It was cool. They came to our area and then we went to
their area for a couple hours. It is super fun. You get to be around
other elders. And you get to talk about all the funny things that
happen. We picked up two new investigators from it. And we got a
couple promising potentials. It was really good.  It is really funny.
I feel like there is a funny story about to happen behind every door.
It's funny.
    This week we started to teach the family that has come to church a
couple times. It is awesome. In our gospel principles class she said
that she loved coming to church. It is great. They are so awesome. I
love them. They are great! And the new people we found are pretty
great. We are hoping to meet with them this week!
    I think I might be getting transferred this Thursday though. It makes
me kinda sad. I wish I could stay to watch these people get baptized.
They are so great!  But I know the people after me should do a good
job. I will miss the people here.  They are the best. And the area is
great. It is the little big city.  It has some decent tall buildings.
But it still is like a community. Everyone goes out and walks there
dogs. And says hi to their neighbors. It's not super fast pace either.
It is pretty relaxed. You have people sitting in the Panera. And
people out walking. It is great. It's just a fun place. We have some
apartments. Some houses. I will really miss it.
     Spring is here. It is beautiful here. The grass is green. And it
is warm. It hit 70 yesterday. It was the best! Something I learned
this week was to notice the stuff around you. There is so much beauty.
I love the spring because they have cardinals here. And they are super
pretty. But you have to be looking around you to notice them. But when
you do you will start to see them all over. I love the mission. It is
great out here. I hope you all had a good week. I sure did. Talk to
you next week.
 
Love, Elder Bigelow

Elder Bigelow and Nick

Dan...we made chocolate with him.

That was probably the scariest elevator I have ever been in! The buttons weren't like real buttons. Nothing was digital. Like to say what elevator it was was like this knob thing. And it kinda bounced up and down. It was all around just a little sketchy

Brother Gordon and Elder Bigelow


 

Week 26 - I was finally let in!

Good morning,
         I bet you are all wondering how my week was. And you probably
want to hear something funny or cool that happened... Ok fine I will
tell you. I feel kinda weird saying every week, "this week was pretty
good" so I am changing it up. But hey, this week was pretty good. I
feel like most of them are. They have their ups and downs. But over
all they are pretty good.
        This week, we did a lot with the bishop. It was actually
really good.  We talked to the bishop and told him, "It is hard for us
to do a lot of tracting with a broken ankle." So we asked him. "Who in
the word can we stop by?" And we got a list of people and just started
going down the list. It was really cool. We meet a lot of people. And
were led to share a lesson with them. And we found that some people
had moved out. And we actually found one lady that didn't want
anything to do with the church. She even wanted her records removed.
That was pretty sad. I don't know what her story was. But we went up
and knocked on her door. She answered and looked like a nice lady. But
was actually quite rude to us. And then she told us that basically she
never wants to see anyone from the church ever again. That was really
sad to me. Someone that at one point in her life believed enough to
make a promise with God. And now she doesn't want to hear anything
about it.
      But hey on a higher note. I was tracting this week with another
elder. And we got let in!  This was the first time in my whole mission
that I actually go let in. And was able to teach a lesson in the home.
It was really good. We meet a guy who learned about the church about
10 years ago. His dad was there too. And we taught both of them. It
was kind of a hard lesson to teach. Because he was really smart. He 
probably knows more about the stick of Judah and the bible then anyone I
have ever meet. And his dad was more of a spiritual guy. He kept
telling us he was spiritual and not religious. It went great. He
could help explain things to his dad. And then he would explain things
to us. And they went along with what we taught. And the spirit was
there. So I know he was teaching us stuff that was really true. He really
emphasized how much you need the spirit. He talked about how the
church doesn't have everything. If it did, there would be so many
books to contain all the words. But we don't have to have it all.
Because we have the spirit. It comes to us and will share what we need
to know. And I thought that was really interesting. And it is true.
The spirit is what will fill everything. He was awesome. He was a
really cool guy. He was a professional baseball player. And he was
trying to get a good coaching job. But he was also very humble too.
Their apartment was very minimal. They had two couches a dresser and a
little corner table and his glove and a ball. And that was all that
was in the room. No tv, nothing like that. And that stood out to me. I
really felt that he had his priorities straight. His dad smoked and
drank, well we think he did. But it may have been water. I don't know.
You could tell that he has spent a lot of hours playing ball. And you
could also tell that he had spent a lot of time studying. He kept
having us look up scriptures and stuff he had memorized. And if he
couldn't then he told us the chapter and then he could find it. And he had
been successful in baseball and in the scriptures.  He put his mind to
it. And didn't waste time on other stuff. He was a really good guy. I
felt like we just met but he trusted us and would do anything for us. And I
think that is something I want to work on. Be able to cut out
distractions. And also be there for whoever needs me.
      I am doing great out here. Having a lot of fun. Working hard.
And laughing a lot. I love going out and thinking who am I going to
meet today. What kind of crazy memory is in the making for today? It
is super fun. I feel like I am in 30 different countries out here. You
knock on one door. They are African American, then next is Indian, the
next is Cambodian, then next is Ghanaian, then the next is from
Russia, then someone from turkey and someone from Vietnam. And throw
in a couple Europeans in there. And a couple more middle eastern and
Asia countries. You have the little melting pot country of Falls
church. It is awesome.  And I have learned, never try to guess where
someone is from. You probably have a 10% chance to get it right.
     I hope you all have a good week. I  miss you!
 
Love, Elder Bigelow
 
Mom, I think this will be your new favorite picture of me!

Looks like Uncle Brian's dog Liza...made me almost feel like home!