Elder Ryan Bird

Hey Mom,
Well, I'm on the junky computer this week. So the email may take a
while. Not to mention that the owners are installing something on this
computer as I use it, so its ridiculously slowing down the computer
(not to mention internet to load up my emails). I have not received
your package yet, I asked Hermana Johnson if she's seen it. I saw her
last week when we had interviews with President Almonte in Bani last
week. Though it should be coming somewhat soon.

Speaking of forecasted rain...We've been having quite a bit of rain
here in Ocoa lately. It was actually raining quite a bit when I walked
over here to the internet center. Although I have seen some pretty
hard rain, I'm still waiting to see something similar to the video Cam
took while he was in Argentina. I've seen some hard rain, but I
haven't seen too many flowing rivers in the streets. Though I have
seen some xD

Glad to hear that GMatt is doing well and sounds like he's got plans
for BYU. I just have one shoutout to him and that is that he is my
HERO! Let's just say that I got a letter from one of my friends last
week (that I'll try and find time this week to write...I promise =D)
and GMatt is just plain AWESOME. I wish him the best and hope he is
well.

I'd say that's one way to make your presence known at home. I'd have
to say that one of my favorite heros of all time is my brother Jared.
He's just too funny with the things he does. If I came home, I'd
probably knock on the door or ring the doorbell at least to make my
presence known. I'll probably just have to learn from his example and
just walk in next time I'm home. Although I'll probably do the
Dominican tradition and just start blasting really loud music instead
of Jared's playing of the piano. I hope that kid knows that I love him
and the things he does =D

Did Chris do anything special for his birthday? I sent him an email
last week wishing him an early happy birthday, I also asked what he
plans were for his birthday if there were any. But, maybe he'll just
answer in time.

Well, I guess I'll answer your spiritual experiences question before I
forget something that's on my mind. I may not have a specific story of
something incredible that happened, but there is at least something
that I can share from last Thursday. Typically for personal study I
read 2 chapters from the Book of Mormon and 2 chapters from the New
Testament (might I add that I'm reading them in Spanish). I've made
personal goals to slowly add more and more things to my personal
study. I have so many things that I wanted to add to my personal study
that I've now given up some of my "ciesta" time to do so so that I can
complete with my goals. Last Thursday I read 1 conference talk (I
finally finished all the talks from October's conference, reading and
marking them), 2 chapters of the Book of Mormon, 2 chapters in the New
Testament, 3 sections of the Doctrine and Covenants, and 1 chapter
from Jesus the Christ. Now, some may believe that this really isn't
anything. But Mom, you know how excited I was to read a book before
the mission. In all the years of my life, I've only really read things
I've been obligated to read. But, when I read all of this, I had a
desire to read from each book and absolutely love reading to learn
from these books. Before the mission I was definitely lacking on the
burning desire, but now I can definitely say that it has grown. The
Book of Mormon is just incredible, the New Testament has great
teachings, the Doctrine and Covenants has great tips, and Jesus the
Christ is just plain awesome. I can definitely say that at the end of
the mission I'll read each one of these books not out of obligation,
but out of desire. This last Sunday Elder Batista gave a lesson on
obedience in La Barra. It was in this lesson where we talked about
obedience because we feel obligated, and obedience because we want to
obey. I would define these things as "good" and "best." Sometimes we
just got to start we to good and work to the best.

Well, one thing I'm kind of sad about is that I only have one event
written down to write home about. Although, it was a pretty fun event.
We had an activity planned for La Barra during the week. It was just
supposed to be an activity for the children (practically everyone
here) of La Barra. We were just going to have a lesson during the
week. Elder Batista and I walked there to help set up and prepare for
the activity. Beforehand, there were a ton of kids...and a ton of
downtime. So, me being me, I decided to play with them. I had the kids
stick out their hands and I would run down the aisle of chairs giving
all of them high fives and I would run back doing the same. These kids
just ABSOLUTELY LOVED it. The would go wild and crazy over it. When I
got a little tired from all the repetition, I told them that it was
their turn to give every high fives. This is when the real fun starts.
All the kids start crowding around me yelling "Me first! Me First!" I
started assigning numbers and the kids just got crazier and crazier
with the yelling and jumping up and down. I'm sure anyone who has
dealt with a large group of kids can relate to what I experienced.
This happened several times with this "game." Then they finally moved
onto a different game that I'll call "Cat and Mouse." Imagine it like
tag, but there's a mouse, a cat, and everyone else is in a circle
holding hands, and is basically an obstacle for the cat. In this
game...the cat takes quite a beating from the kids trying to block the
cat from the mouse. It's quite funny. But at the start of every game
all the kids would come screaming to me asking me to be the cat or
mouse. I told them that they could choose, but they seemed to not want
to. I guess I became the center of attention in the neighborhood of La
Barra. All the adults were laughing at what was going on. But its all
good. It was an adventure.

Well, I'm sad to say that that's really all that I have written down
for the week. I'm glad to hear that the bird house is doing great and
that Jared made it to San Diego safely. I wish the best for all of you
and hope you guys have a great week!

Love,
-Elder Bird

Hey Dad,
Thanks tons for the email. I absolutely love it! I'm glad to hear about the runner's update (Boston Marathon, Chris, and Blake). I'm especially glad to hear about it when I finally get a chance to go running. I imagine that my number of runs will increase in the oncoming weeks while I'm still in Ocoa. Not only is Ocoa a great place to go running, but I also need to take advantage of having other Elders who have a desire to go running. I believe every Elder in our district wants to go running. Elder Batista and I were the first to take the step though.

And might I add, LOVE the update about the "Gospel Library" application. At first I understood Library with the computer science perspective. I was thinking that it was a library of stuff to use in programming and that it was just called "Gospel Library" (ie. in Java, java.util.lang package, etc). So I now understand what's going on. I had to take a look at it on the church's website and was actually tempted to check out its link to Apple's website (if it be a sin, may I be punished for researching the church's resources). The description of this application is AWESOME! This makes me want to buy an iTouch just to have this application. It is so resourceful. Might I also congratulate you on your position with this project. Feel free to keep me updated about this program. I am so excited for you. After retiring (or even before), I'd love to volunteer in the church for this kind of work. Does this mean that you'll be getting phone calls from Apostles seeing as how you're the technical lead now? Or do the apostles call the person just above you? (ie. the...manager of the entire project?). I guess words can't describe my excitement about this project. I did happen to see that it got awesome reviews. I guess that the church just rocks house like that.

I did hear about Alex Leavitt's mission call and I heard about Ryan Quackenbush's mission call from one of Caitlan McConnell's letters. I'm glad to hear about all of these calls seeing as how I know 3 of them and I'm familiar with the name of Keith Madsen. I'd probably know him if I saw him. I might also point out that I was especially excited to hear that Ryan Quackenbush got his mission call. Besides Matthew Bosen and Matt Groesbeck, I haven't heard about any mission calls from anyone else in my seminary class. Speaking of which, is Matt attending BYU right now or is he still in San Diego. I haven't heard any updates of where he's at since december or january. How's he doing?

Well, I love the story from Bro. Leavitt. Although I hope that you're not trying to get me discouraged with my excitement about being a computer science major. Although I do accept that my major is open for change. But it does have an awesome relation to Joseph of Egypt that I love hearing again and again. Ending up as a slave to eventually become the 2nd most powerful person in the nation....second only to someone perceived as a God on earth. Sounds pretty good if you ask me....

Well, this normally would be all that I had for now, but an odd thought came to mind when I was thinking about Joseph of Egypt. So I guess I'll share it. Just a little thing that happened to me sometime ago (I'm not sure when or where). Sometimes when I'm out teaching I try and perceive situations from an investigators point of view. One thing that I thought about, as if I were an investigator. Here are two missionaries, at my door, telling me about a church that was restored in the United States. Here is just another church from the US. What makes a church in the US so special to me and why should I join it? Why isn't the real church of God from a country that isn't a world power? I guess I just found it difficult for me to see how people could accept a church from a different country with its prophet, head quarters, general authorities, and many members in a different country. But a thought came to my mind as I was thinking about this. Jesus was born, raised, and lived in the land of Israel. But I have no problem knowing and accepting him as my Savior. I then came to this new perspective. I thought about how much I accepted that, then it became much easier and clearer to me. I'm not really sure if this story/relation makes any sense whatsoever, but I hope it does. If it doesn't, feel free to ask questions. Cause I really love it.

Love,
-Elder Bird

Hey Mom,
Love the email this week. I am currently sending photos while writing this. So I hope those photos will be sent while I am here. One thing that I wrote in a letter to one of my friends (Kevin, it should arrive this week or next week :) ) is that I may set up somewhere to post my photos. After having a corrupted data problem dad suggested that I have some kind of backup for my photos in case it happens again. He showed me a website where I can have my photos stored and they actually have a feature to have a gallery (like Apple's Me Websites). I am currently working with this website and may end up being a pretty good addition to my blog. Not to mention you may get the opportunity to view photos that I haven't sent. The only downside....time. So we'll see how that goes if I end up getting it to work. And I'll send the URL if things go as I plan.

Once again, I'm glad to hear that things are going well back in San Diego and that the house still stands with all the earthquakes going on in the world. I look forward to hearing about the trek when it comes along and I expect a report from Kara when that comes along.

One thing you reminded me of. I wasn't aware of your story of when you and Kara saw Arnold Schwarzenegger (Ahhnold for short :) ). But I want to say that I caught a glimpse of him when he was at Westview when I was still in High School. What happened was that everyone knew that he was in the school library and there was a bunch of people coming out of the library during lunch time. Although I can't testify that I saw his face, I do believe that I was within 25 feet of him. Just a cool story while we're talking about our awesome governor.

Well, I had a little chuckle in your email when you said that in my last picture that I sent home that I was a "tall, thin, and handsome." I just have the stories that I've written home when I've had the comments of "¡Que feo!" "¡Que blanco!" and "¡Que Gordo!" Now might I add that they're all from Dominican perspectives and my "Que feo" story is comparing my current state to my state before the mission. So, all in all, I'm just taking them as hilarious stories. I hope my pictures that will be sent any moment now will clear up any misunderstandings. (window pops up saying "message sent" right as I finished that sentence)

Well, once again, glad to hear that the family is doing well. I have been slacking off a bit on recording fun events or experiences that happen. I'll share some events before I forget about them and then talk about the ones I've written down. The political events around here have been increasing in number. Last Saturday Elder Batista and I had plans to work in an area north of our house. When we arrived, the entire neighborhood was attending a baseball game of political "runners" (I can't think of the word for someone who is running for office). Apparently their current Senator (of Ocoa) threw the first pitch of the game and didn't do more than that. But I imagine that the other players did a little more than that. I actually have a story about another politician that you'll see, but I'll have to tell some other stories before I forget them.

Here in the house of Ocoa, when you solve one problem, you receive another. We no long have problems with ants but now have problems with mice. We've had a few mouse traps out for the past week or two. We've found a couple traps with the bait missing, but a few successful traps if you catch my meaning. I think last Saturday, some mice were unlucky as to run around the house while we were home after working. We decided to go on a mouse hunt with items we had laying around the house. It was quite the fun event seeing as how Elder Batista got too into our hunt that he ended up breaking our broom. When I swept and mopped this morning, it wasn't so easy. I guess once we take care of the rats we'll have another problem to take care of. But we had a lot of fun chasing these mice around.

Last week Elder Batista and I went on a run in the early morning. I think I just about killed him xD. We didn't run far, but there were a couple things that benefited me more than him. He hadn't run in at least a year and a half and I was accustomed to running in high altitudes and far distances. Although I wasn't tired, I could feel that my legs have tightened up. But my companion was out for the next couple days. It was quite funny. We have plans to continue doing some runs. I want to go running with Elder Eskildsen who actually ran track in High School, but I'm afraid that we'll tire each other out. We actually do that when we go walking on exchanges. He said that he's not used to walking with someone who can walk as fast as him. He also walks just ahead of his companion and I like to walk side by side. So one can imagine that when those two different mindsets come to play, we tend to walk a little faster than is comfortable. Just a fun story...

Elder Batista and I were visiting my first baptism, Brenda, and her family last week when we heard a knock at the door. Three people entered in and began shaking everyone's hand in the room (as it is accustomed to do when someone enters a house). One of them introduced herself to me as "Esther Menyetty" (I can't remember her spelling). But she is a candidate (I remembered the word =D) for "diputada" which I've been told is a political office just under Senator. We were able to have an interesting discussion with her. Although I wanted to share something with her, we only introduced ourselves as missionaries. One thing that we've noticed about our political experiences, people look so much different in person than in their political campaigning pictures. I imagine that US politics is the exact same.

Last week I went on a missionary exchange with our zone leaders. Elder Taveras, who is a very good friend of mine, came here to Ocoa to work with Elder Batista and I went with Elder Jean Louis to Bani to work with their investigators. Elder Jean Louis is a Haitian who reported to the MTC the day after I reported to the MTC in Provo. So, he's got somewhat the same amount of time as me and is already zone leader. He's a really cool guy and speaks 3 languages practically fluently. Spanish, Creolle, and French. Many of the haitians that I've met in the mission are amazing with their language skills. I certainly wish that I could be multilingual. Although, I am working on a second language to go along with my english. One thing that I definitely learned in this exchange...when I think I live in a city, I find a bigger one here in the DR. I thought that Ocoa was a city....then I worked in Bani (I've been here several times). More buildings....more people.....more things to do.

Well, that's it for stories. You ask for spiritual experiences or insight/testimony, so I'll share something that I heard from a member a few weeks ago that I really liked. Just a note, I'd probably have more spiritual experiences if we had some progressing investigators. That's something we've been struggling with here in Ocoa. But, back to the subject. A few weeks ago in a church meeting we had in La Barra, a member shared the following relation about prayer. Might I add that this has Elder Bird changes/interpretations/missing details since I can't remember it quite perfectly. There was a boy who was standing in a long canyon when he yells something out. He then hears the echo. He continues to yell things out and continues to hear the echo. Later he is speaking with the Lord and asks him, "Why didn't you respond?" The Lord then says "I did, didn't you hear the voice that came back to you?" This was a story that I really liked. There is only one problem I find with it and that's (being a science person) the echo says the exact same words that is said by the source of sound. But besides the point, it shows that the more we call and the stronger that we call, the more often and stronger we hear a response. Now might I add, that in a prayer the strength of a prayer isn't in the strength of your voice rather it resides in your intent. The greater the intention...the clearer response that we hear. Might I note that an echo is a response that comes after a call and comes when it comes. Also, depending on the environment will also depend on when the echo will come back.

Anyway, that's all that I can think of for now. I'll be sure to try and write back some more "good stuff" for you in the incoming weeks. I hope the best for all of you and pray for the best!

Love,
-Elder Bird

Hey Mom,
This week you get a bonus email since I'm not sure if I'll be able to write everyone this week. I'm a bit low on time. I guess I waited too long for my photos to upload. So I'm now using a different method so that I can try to upload photos and get emails sent.

Apparently Elder Batista was District leader in his last area. At least, that's what I remember him saying, I may have misunderstood (that's been known to happen). I think it was just the typical "adjustment week" with having a new companion and stuff. Typically the first week with a new companion is the most difficult...but it hasn't always been the case.

I definitely remember Bro. Spurgiesz from back home. I just hope in the future that I'll be able to have stories like him. But, I'm willing to bet that some of these stories come when you are senior companion and actually have a better understand of what is going on. Although I'm just about at that point (I believe). But I was also thinking that I need to be in a place with more excitement. In the mission there are two "zones", the capital and the "campo" (field). This was "divided" just by the missionaries, its nothing official. The "campo" has been a little notorious for being a little less interesting than the capital. I've been told that both areas are hard in their own respective ways. But we'll see if I get more stories in the near future.

Well, in looking at my agenda for the last week it appears that most of my notes are non-missionary work related. Last Thursday we had Zone conference in Azua. It was here that I got to see Elder Carrasco since Neyba. Before I tell you what the first thing he said was, I have to say what Elder Batista said when he saw me here in Ocoa. One of the first things was "¡Que BLANCO!" (How white!). Ocoa doesn't have as much sun as Neyba, so it appears that I've whitened up a little bit. When I saw Elder Carrasco last week he said, "¡Que GORDO!" (How fat!). I thought it was rather funny. Maybe I've gained weight...but I doubt it since I haven't gained weight since the beginning of the mission. But, who knows?

Yesterday we had a big event here in Ocoa. President Leonel came to visit Ocoa (just a note that Leonel visited Neyba when I was there). So, being missionaries, we don't really care that he's there. But, Elder Tonge and I were at our neighbor's house who cooks for us when she tells us, "Leonel is coming this way." Elder Tonge and I run back to the house, tell the other missionaries that Leonel was coming near our street, and grab our cameras. So, I ended up being 10 ft away from the leader of this country. Just a fun experience.

This morning we had a zone activity here in Ocoa. Last week we planned to go on a fun activity of some kind as a district. This last weekend we got a call from our zone leaders that they wanted to join in on whatever activity we do (just because we have so much fun :) ). We ended up going on a fun hike to a cave. What is interesting is that in one of my photos (that I hope loads up, but I can't tell if my email is progressing or not) there is a dried up waterfall. This waterfall is actually pretty well known among the missionaries. I wanted to get a picture of it...however we haven't really been having rain lately. It's been drizzling the past few days, but not enough to do anything. I just guess that I'm here during a bad season.

Well, as for events or planned things I had to write, that was all of them. I'll take a turn by telling about some of my investigators (I usually don't talk about them because there isn't much variance storywise between them). There's a lady that we are teaching who knows Elder Smith. She has interest in our lessons and in the church. She's just struggling to find time to attend church. One thing that's been quite difficult for the past transfer, we go to La Barra to help out the members there (there are about 2 adult members, x amount of children members, and XX amount of non-member children, where x represents an unknown number to me). Since we help out in La Barra, its kind of hard to help out the people here in the pueblo/town. I'm willing to bet that we can get her to go to church if we could just stop by her house one Sunday. Although we've been trying to get her neighbor to take her to church who is a member.

Last week we taught a couple of Haitians. One of them doesn't speak very much spanish, but the other 2 did. They were familiar with the church (I can't remember exactly what they knew or remember about the church) but they knew enough to ask for a Book of Mormon in Creole. I hope that we can get a creole book here to give it to them, but we're probably going to see if we can teach them a few lessons first.

Anyway, that's all that I've got for now. I hope things are going well back home and that you guys stay safe from all these earthquakes that are going on. Have fun, take care, and live it up!

Love,
-Elder Bird

PS. Sorry about the short email, but I hope my pictures will make up for it if they end up getting sent.

Hey Mom,
Thanks for the update. Especially for the heads up about having a
spotlight in June. I'll try and keep my eyes open for anything you can
report in June. However...this could be a fun search. But we'll see
what happens.

Another earthquake, eh? Sounds like the western hemisphere is having
its fair share of destruction. I'm glad to hear that you guys are
doing alright, but sounds like it was awfully close to you guys. Are
there any reported numbers of destruction? I guess its just a sign of
the times...

Well, I got to have a fun experience with General Conference. We were
forbidden by our mission president to watch it in English. Even if we
had the resources to do so (we could have gone to Bani where they have
sufficient tv's) we weren't allowed to. Not to mention that we
couldn't watch Saturday afternoon nor priesthood session. Lets just
say that I am glad that I was able to watch last general conference in
english in the MTC. The translators for spanish had a different accent
and it was rather hard for me to follow along. There was one
translator that was actually quite easy to understand. He had the
heaviest gringo accent I've ever heard and I made a comment to the
other Elders that I believe that my ears are bleeding. But, it was
probably this translator's first time, he'll probably sharpen up with
experience ;) As for now, I'll probably go by what you have to say
about conference or wait for the general conference issue of the
Liahona (not to mention that I hope I get that in English too).

Elder Ballard did visit the DR a long time ago and I wasn't able to
listen to him just because I wasn't assigned to the capital. To my
knowledge, the capital missionaries got to listen to him. I'll have to
ask Elder Eskildsen and his new companion, Elder Tonge, if they got to
listen to Elder Ballard. I know both of them got to listen to Elder
Bednar when he was here for the earthquake in Haiti.

Glad to hear that Toby and Dad had a great time at the Developer's
Conference. I was aware that dad was going, but I didn't know Toby was
too. But it doesn't surprise me that he went too. I'm willing to bet
that dad's email will have some info that I'm wanting to know about.
If it doesn't, I may have to have you write me the details of his trip.

I'd like to return a "Happy Easter" to all of you as well. This last
week was "Semana Santa" (Holy Week) and there weren't too many things
from the norm, but a couple. First off, I learned that there was no
school all last week. On Friday, 99% of all shops were closed. And
just a local thing, right in front of the church (you can probably see
it in my photo I sent today) there is a huge dirt field. Some locals
set up three crosses in the dirt. Just a little thing to show cultural
differences. This entire country is aware of Holy Week and I had no
idea what it was my freshman year in High School. I had a friend of
mine tell me that she wasn't eating any meat for a week. She responded
that it was Holy Week after I asked her why. Afterwards...I had no
idea what in the world she was talking about. I was thinking that Holy
Week sounded like something Islamic. But, I did come to a knowledge of
what in the world she was talking about.

Well, to answer your question, my new companion is Elder Batista. As I
said last week, he is the same Elder Batista who was companions with
Elder Smith in Neyba. So, we know each other already. He has been
assigned to be district leader here in Ocoa. I forget that having
experience in an area has no involvement in choosing a district
leader. He and I had a...fun week. I wouldn't quite say that it was a
bad week, but I just hope this next one is better. When certain people
are given power/authority/a calling, it kind of gets to their head.
But, this was just the first week and we had a ton of things happen
this past week that affected our work in Ocoa. So, things should
brighten up.

Although I do have to say that Elder Eskildsen, Elder Tonge, and I are
getting along really well when we are in the house (and outside too).
Elder Tonge is from Bountiful, UT. Once again, that's another person
that I know from Bountiful who is just absolutely awesome. He and I
went on a missionary exchange to do our interview for the baptism we
had this week. We just had a fun time that day.

During our exchange on Friday, we got to try a food/"dulce" (meaning
"sweet") that is quite common for Semana Santa. I don't know how they
are spelled, but I believe that they are called "bañuelos." In a way,
it was kind of like a donut hole. It was a bread-like donut hole put
in a sugary water...substance. I don't know really how to describe it.
But it was way good.

Then, the only other matter of business that I have written down is
the actual baptism. This little girl is named "Dari" and apparently
has been attending church for over a year. Elder Rogerio and I have
been teaching her and we were sad that we couldn't get her baptized
before Elder Rogerio left. But, it's all good. She is just a sweet
little thing. I noticed that in my pictures, she just has the cutest
smile I've seen here in the DR. I've noticed that with the majority of
my baptismal pictures, hardly any of them are smiling. But Dari is
smiling in every single one. She is just a cute little dominican.

Well, I believe that that is all that I have for now. I'm glad to hear
that you are all safe and doing well. I hope Kara has an enjoyable
Spring Break and that she enjoys her breaks while she has them.
Breaks...do not exist in the mission. But, all is well in Zion.
Anyways...

Take care!
Love,
-Elder Bird

Hey Mom,
Feels great to send photos weekly again....I´ll get to your letter
when I´m done sending photos and writing president.

Love,
-Elder Bird