Week 34 - Stay in the fight

Hey mom!!!

     So there is a family in my ward out here and they are headed to Utah for a wedding. And I told them to stop by. And they said sure. I will send some stuff home with them for you guys.  They are the Ogdens.  They are super nice.  And they help us out a lot!  I thought it might be cool for you guys.  And the stuff I send will be cool! I gave him your number and address. Just a heads up for you. So some random guy doesn't stop by and say he knows me. He really does! 

       This week has been great.  Kinda a funny story. But really cool. So we were in Gospel Principles yesterday at Brother and Sister Meiners were there. We were talking about faith and hope and Brother Aiken asks Mitch about what faith is.  And he starts talking about how hope makes up the gap between our faith and perfect faith. And then he turns to Ashley. And says, "oh I haven't told you this yet. But I decided I am ready to be baptized!"  And most people started laughing. And she just started bawling. It was super cool. And the we were talking to him a little later and he said, "I think I have progressed all I can. Now the next step is baptism! And if I want to keep progressing that's what I need to do!"  It was super cool!  He gets it. I love it! So he decided to get baptized the day before Mother's Day! And then conformed on Mother's Day! 

       This week has been a little bitter sweet. Every Friday night we go over to the Meiners for dinner and a lesson. And I think I had my last one on Friday. But we will see. I could get transferred to where they live. Or closer at least. Who knows. But that was a little sad. And then it was probably my last Sunday at church and stuff. It's kinda sad. But I am also really excited! It will be good to see what Virginia has next for me! 

       We found someone new this week that is pretty cool. She just had cancer and some other medical problems. And she has been really questioning weather or not God is there.  She feels like she needs to come back to church, so we invited her to come with us. And she said she couldn't, but only because she would be out of town next week. But the weeks after she would come with her family. That was pretty sweet!  She is cool! I am excited for her. I think she will progress. And we found another lady last week. We weren't able to stop by again yet, but she started crying when we talked to her on her porch. It was really cool. She was so great full for us!  Those are our two most promising people we have coming up!  

       You will never guess what we are doing today! We are going to go fishing with one of the members. I am really excited! Even though I am living in an concrete  jungle there are still pieces of wilderness out here. And it is nice to be able to go explore them. I will send you pictures of that!  That will be sweet! 

        This week I have been thinking about what the Lord expects of us.  And the thing that keeps come to my mind is to keep your chin up. And keep you fists up. He just wants us to stay in the fight. He is right there for us. Telling us what to do, but he needs us to stay in the fight. When we get knocked down he needs us to stand back up. And to put our hands back up.  And to just stay in it. And I just thought I share that with you. Keep your hands up and keep fighting.

      I love you. I hope things are going well there!   They are out here!

Love you lots!

Love, Elder Bigelow

 

Elder Bigelow and the other Falls Church Missionaries went fishing with Randy Crump, a member in their ward.  This was his facebook post along with this picture, "This is why I should not be left in charge of the missionaries on P-day."  I responded, " Oh wow... Elder Bigelow has always been able to get himself into some sort of mischief. He says you are just great at helping him along! Thank you for taking care of these boys! This Mom misses hers!" And Brother Crump responded,

"We sure love him too-he's a great missionary works hard and sets a great example for all of us. We will miss him know he's excited for transfers. It's truly been a blessing to have him serve in our ward. Thank you for loaning him to us. We love him!"

Elder Haddon, Elder Skousen, Elder Bishop and Elder Bigelow

Yay, you didn't get skunked... Do I ever get skunked Mom?

Top: left to right. Elder Johnson, Elder Merrill,  Elder Bishop, Elder Tapusoa, Elder Bunn, Elder Hardy, Elder Hudson (has my same birthday. And came out with me!) Middle: Elder Norton, Elder Kiloti, Elder Finlayson, me, Elder Teeples, Elder Haddon, Elder Simpson, Elder Poulsen, Elder Skousen, Elder Babcock, Elder Thomson, Bottom: Sister Alcantara, Sister Orr, Sister Johnson

Elder Bigelow and the Platt Boy

 

Week 33 - Mom's and Dad's letters

Hiking with Elder Bishop

(Mom note... Dad got his email early from Elder Bigelow and then I got mine late in the day.  Trouble with Wifi, but we did get some fun pictures of his hike.  And you will get to see how differently Elder Bigelow writes to each of his parents.  Enjoy, but don't tell him I posted them... ;) )

Hey Mom,  

     That's sounds like so fun. I am a little jealous!  That's so funny about grandpa and a trailer. He is just a sweet guy. And likes to take care of the girls in the family!  It was probably nice that not everyone was there. But it's all good. I am having way more fun out here!  When do you come out with Mark? 

     Sound like you guys had fun and are doing well. Don't forget to send pictures!  I love getting pictures. And showing them to people around out here. 

     Today was pretty fun.  It was a good day. It didn't run as smoothly as we would have liked. I feel like it never does when you have 4 boys that want to do what they want.  Today we woke up at six. Elder Bishop and I. A little early.  Then went to the hike till like ten. And got some breakfast.  I came back and showered and got ready. Then took a nap. And then at noon Elder Haddon came over. And we went to get groceries.  I didn't get anything. I think I will be leaving soon. So I don't want to leave food! And then we go back. And we went to wifi for a little. And then went to play soccer and basketball. It was pretty sweet!  And now we are back. I didn't get a ton of wifi so far. So that's why it is coming in kinda late. 

       This week was good. We dropped Florie. And kinda stunk. And it was kinda awkward.  But she knew it was coming and it was expected. But a ward member picked her up and will keep in touch with her so that is good. I think she needs a little break from the missionaries.  If that makes sense. Like once you don't have something you realize how good it was to have it. If that makes sense. So that's how she is doing. 

     And then Luis is doing good. We figured out he had problem with herb. Or weed. Or whatever you want to call it. It is funny to have a 65 year old man say joint and herb and all the lingo assorted to marijuana. But it is good that we know that now. We are doing our best to keep him busy. And to make sure his stays with the plan. When he got out of the hospital he had a plan. With stuff to do. So every day we follow up with him on the plan. And it is kinda funny. We will be driving. And just see him walking like 2 miles from his house. It is funny! We are like hey that's Luis. And then it really is. It's funny. 

     Tonight we are going to a fancy steak and see food place. It should be good. I am excited for it. It is called Eddie V's. I will get a picture for you.

     I am doing great. Sorry this isn't super long. I am doing well! I love you. Thank you. I can't wait to see you on Mother's Day. I think it might be my new favorite holiday. Until Christmas comes again!  Send you me pictures!  You are the best, Mom! 

    

Love, Elder Bigelow

Hey dad!
        Things are going well.  We went on a hike this morning. Elder
Bishop and I. That was pretty great. It was nice to have a little
break! It was cool. It was nice to be out in nature.  Weirdly enough
they have some out here. We saw a bunch of deer. All white tail. A
bunch of ducks and geese. We saw some other cool birds.  Like cranes
and cardinals and orioles.  Oh and even 2 bald eagles!  Maybe only one.
But we saw it twice. That was cool. It makes me miss hunting and
fishing. Today for p-day we are going to play soccer as a zone. So I am
pretty excited about that. It will be the first time I played since I
left. The only sports I have played is basketball and volleyball. We
play volleyball every Wednesday and it is super fun. It is good
volleyball too!  It cool.

       I kinda miss Moab and jeeping. I am a little jealous of your
night run. That sounds like fun! I would love that!
     That's sweet you play frisbee golf. There is a disk in our
apartment here that I will take.  And I might try to acquire some so
that I can play out here. I think that would be fun!

        Funny story of the week.  So a couple of missionaries tried doing an apple
juice cleanse. Basically you can have up to 20lbs of poop in your
body. And this will clean it out.  So I tried it. You go 48 hours and
all you do is drink apple juice!  Very bad idea. I only made it 24. My
stomach hurt so bad. It gave me the poops and all around just not a
good idea. Never doing that again.  Anyways we were at dinner at the
Meiners house. And they have a little boy that I was play with. And
then I had to go to the bathroom. And I didn't feel very good. So I go
in. And he is laying down by the door yelling at me.  And I am like,
"Go play with Elder Skousen." And he is like ok.  And then like ten
seconds later he says, "are you done yet." And I am like no. Go away.
Quit drawing attention. I didn't say that. But looking back I wanted to, but it was
funny.

Do you have the picture from Moab a couple years ago with all out
jeeps up on the rocks? I want that picture.

Other then that I am doing good. This week has been pretty good!
Thanks. Love you lots. Can't wait to talk to you.

Love, Elder Bigelow

Week 32 - Cherry Blossoms everywhere

Hey everyone! 

       Hope you have been doing well. This week has been good. I hope you all enjoyed conference. I sure did. One of my favorite talks was about how our choices lead to where we will end up.  I like that. And if you don't know where you want to go, you will end up there. But we all know where we want to go. And we know what we need to do to get there. And I thought that was really cool. We can break it down so simply. And take it one choice at a time. And I like that.  And I also like that we get credit for trying. When we try we are noted for our effort. Those are some of the things I really liked about conference. 

        This week we had a lesson with this lady named Florie. We meet with her every week. And she seemed to be progressing. She hadn't been to church yet, but she loves us. She loves learning. And she likes the Book of Mormon. Anyways on Wednesday some stuff came up in the lesson that was kinda frustrating. And it really makes her mad. She has some family that are members and she hears about some stereo types. And she basically made her whole judgement of the church on the kind of stereo types of Mormons girls.  You know the ones, that they get married and don't finish school and have no job and stuff. And she has heard some anti stuff. So now she hates Joseph Smith. And that really makes her angry and she just has a couple things that now make her hate the church. And now she told us that she promised herself she would never join. And that even if Jesus Christ himself came to her and told her that the Mormons were His church on the earth she would say No Lord. I will not follow you. And it is really frustrating. Because she loves us. She feels the spirit when we come. She just has her head convinced that we are so wrong. And she won't even ask. We told her hey. This is Jesus Christ's church. Ask Him. And she is like no. I won't. And it is just sad. But she has her agency. And that is something that we all fought for in the war in heaven. And we have to respect that. And she is still a daughter of God. And a lost sheep. We will do our best. To help her feel the spirit. It is just hard.

     I love this mission. I am doing great! I hope you are all doing well 

                      Love, Elder Bigelow  

Week 31 - Sister Meiners got Baptized!!!

(Mom note... Elder Bigelow didn't send a group email this week, so I am sharing parts of mine!!)

 

Hey mom, 

      Whole cow.  A lot has happened since last time we talked. A lot of good things.  Some funny things. And some sad things.  

      I think I will start with the good things. Sister Meiners got baptized. And the program went flawless. I got kinda nervous she would pull out at the last second. But she held on. She had a lot of people trying to keep her from doing this. It made me really sad.  She posted on Facebook that she was getting baptized. And a bunch of her friends were really bagging on her for doing this. She was telling us that is she posted pictures of herself drunk at a bar with some other guy that her friends wouldn't say anything. But she says she wants to come closer to God and everyone flips out. This week I have learned through multiple experiences that a lot of people hate on the church. But she is super strong. She has had the conformation that this is right for her. And she is willing to take that and run with it! It is so great that no matter what stands in her way right now, she knows that she can go through it with the power of God! She is so awesome. You would love her!  She loves that presents you sent out for her. It is great that I was able to be a part of her journey from start to baptism. And to keep with it forever. It will be harder for her husband. He has a couple of things he will need to give up. And that will be hard for him. But he was super supportive of her. So I think that he will come around. 

       Some funny things that happened this week. So we have a less active that put himself in a mental hospital one Monday. And so we have been visiting him a bunch. It is really good for him I think. He seems to be doing a lot better. Anyways. There is always something funny that happens when we go in there.  So we are talking to him and this Indian lady comes over and asked if she could study with us. We are like, "Um ok, sure." So she is talking to us. And I say Indian lady but she is not like an old wrinkly one. We know some of those. She is a young. Mid 20's girl. And she is actually kinda cute. Like modern girl from Indian. Anyways she asks us what it means to be a Christian? We are like, "well, its in the word. To believe in Christ." And she says, "wrong!" And she rattles off some scripture off. And she drops the bible in from of us and tries to get up and leave. And we are like, what just happened. And then Luis, the guy we meet with tells her, "Well if you know all these answers why don't you preach to us." And she says, "You know that is a good idea." (I'm like. I'm no Luis. Bad idea. Just let her leave) so she tries to find some scripture that condemns our church. And she can't find it. Because this aren't any.  And then she finally just leaves. And I was like wow. Bible bashed in a mental hospital. Check that one off the bucket list. And then we went there last night and she was talking to some guy about how we were false prophets. And how it talks about that in the bible. And it just reminded me of how people hate on the church. 

      Okay, another funny story. From the same hospital. I almost got into a fist fight. With a little Arab man. So we are waiting for our man Luis to get out of the shower. And we are standing in the hall. And this guy just keeps walking up and down the hall. Faster then a regular walk. And I am like ok. And then one time I try to be nice. And am like. "How are you doing?" He stops and turns to me and says, "Are you from the church. I see Jesus Christ on your name tag." And then he starts yelling and says, "what are you doing here. Do you know where you are?"  I am like, "umm yea". He says, "this is a hospital. A mental hospital!" (Yea I can see that... I didn't say that but I was thinking that). And then he just keeps going off and he is angry.  "What are you doing talking to me?"  I was like, "sorry bro. Just trying to be nice and happy." And finally Luis comes out. And we leave. And then Luis says, "Man, that guy had been trying to beat the he️!! out of me since I got here." It was kinda funny. It is always an adventure there! But Luis is doing a lot better know. He is smiling more. And laughing. So it is good. It think it is best for him. 

       And then something sad. The Hill family left for China. That's kinda sad. They are in China right now. It's not too bad because I know that just after I get home they will be coming back to Utah. We have spent a lot of time with them the last couple weeks. And that's kinda sad. But I will still keep in contact with them. Even though they are in China. But I got a lot of pictures this week for you:)! Most of them are with the Hills. But it's ok. 

     I miss you. And love you lots. I can't wait till Mother's Day. Where I can talk to you! 

Love, Elder Bigelow

Elder Bigelow and Elder Skousen with the Hill family before they left for China.

Elder Bigelow and Elder Skousen with Sister Ashley Meiners on her baptism day.  Saturday, March 26, 2016.