Wednesday, June 29, 2011

June 27, 2011 Transfered to SLC While Waiting for the Visa

Hey there,

Okay so my first day out in the field has been pretty cool and yeah!!!
All of my nerves are gone that I had this morning so yeah I've had
fun!!! I met my new companion, but don't quite know his name so yeah.
I'm actually in a quad companionship so it will be interesting. We're
staying in a member’s home in his basement so yeah it's been pretty
interesting. My companionship is cool too!! Two of us are fresh out of
the MTC and the other two have been in the area for a while so yeah!!!
Okay, so let me start from the start. This morning I left the MTC via
a Van. Four people have been reassigned to Salt Lake City so yeah! Two
Sisters that are going somewhere that I can't remember, an Elder
that's going to Spain Madrid so there's something we have in common!
As I said we were put into a quad so I guess I get to switch
companions if I want to, hehe. I really like the Elder that I have
right now though! He's from Mexico, but I don't know what part of
Mexico he's from. Oh well, he's from Mexico and that's all that really
matters! Today is P-Day so that's why I'm able to email so soon to
you!! Today what I've done so far is meet the Mission President, and
he's really nice!! After that, we were taken to the house where we
dropped off our luggage. Then we went to Wal-Mart to buy some stuff,
then went to Sonic to get lunch. After that, we went to the mechanic
to get the car repaired, but we won’t have a car. It's a different
companionship's car so yeah!!! I get to ride a bike!!! Beat that!!!!
Anyway, now I'm here typing this email!!! Later on, we have I think 3
appointments that we need to go to which will be interesting since
these are the first real people that I get to teach!!! It shall be
interesting!!! How's everything in the home? Did you have a good week?
Take care and I'll talk to you next week!!! I love you all!!!!

~Elder Bauer~

Friday, June 24, 2011

June 24, 2011 First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve at the MTC

Dear Family,

This week has been crazy for me!!
I'm sorry to hear about your horrible week with the dummy, but he's still a child of God (the MTC makes me cheesy, sorry). Yeah, that card was the only good card that I could find. I'm glad you liked it so much! =)
Anyway, as I was saying, this week has been crazy!! Thursday I got my Flight plans for Spain, and I'm travel leader!!! Before you get too excited, I went to the Travel Office and they told me that I don't have my visa, so I may not go to Spain for a while. Friday and Saturday, I don't remember what happened, but it's okay. Sunday was really awesome!!! It rained a lot and we found out that this week was going to be really different for us since this is the only week each year that 1/3 of the Mission Presidents are replaced and so all this week the Quorum of the Twelve as well as the First Presidency are here at the MTC so it's pretty awesome!!! We also did our temple walk in the rain, but that was the best since the clouds were so low and it looked amazing!!! Monday all day was In-Field Orientation meeting so that's all that we did that day. It was really fun and helpful to what to expect and what do there so yeah!!! Tuesday was pretty fun too!!! I went to choir practice and we sang Blessings, aka Come thou Fount, and Elder Sybrowsky from the Seventy came to speak!! He was really good!!!
Yesterday was Wednesday (so profound) and what happened that day was pretty awesome!!! We did Hosting again and I Hosted 3 elders!!! The first Elder was awesome and I showed him to his room, took him to the bookstore, and to class. The second was the same, except that I had to carry his really heavy bags up the stairs. I'm sore from that today. Then I became the worst host ever and asked him to help me with his bags. The last Elder was the best!!! He was super excited you could tell!!! He was smiling all the time, and laughed at what I said either because he was being nice or it really was funny I don't even know. But that was fun!!! Then we went to class and we had a sub for Hermano Bell called Hermano Staples. That was Easy!!! It was fun!!! Today is P-Day and it's been fun! The usual happened like the Temple, lunch and stuff, but Elder Mockler had to go to the Travel Office to get a trip scheduled to the Consulate to get his visa, which he's been waiting for a long time!!! Then, the lady that works there told us to turn around and Jeffery R. Holland is talking to someone right outside the door!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I SAW ELDER HOLLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I nearly died right there!!!!!! Anyway, that was the highlight of my day. We also got haircuts, but that isn't as cool.

How are things there? Any updates on next week? This is my last P-Day here, so I wouldn't send anything else to the MTC since I'll be leaving soon. I may be able to call soon, but yeah. Take care and I'll talk to you soon!

Love you all!!

~Elder Bauer~

Thursday, June 16, 2011

June 16th 2011

June 16, 2011
I got a letter from Sister Johnson yesterday or Tuesday. I don't really remember so yeah!!! Thank you Sister Johnson for the letter as well as the others that have sent me letters!
Now on to my exciting week!!!

Friday was a pretty good day! We practiced teaching the Word of Wisdom. It was pretty fun, but hard at the same time! Elder Ferrill was sick that day so he didn't feel up to teaching so Elder Mockler and I took the lesson and yeah. Saturday we did pretty much the same thing as we did on Friday except we taught Elder Weeks so yeah!! Also during the week we talked about how to teach the Law of Chastity. Sunday was pretty cool!!! We had the usual kind of stuff and yeah. For the Fireside we had the MTC Director talk to us and guess what he talked about!! He talked about the Law of Chastity and how to teach it!!! It was pretty awesome since that's what we've been talking about all week long. After that we watched the movie called Legacy and it was a pretty cool movie!!! Elder Mockler had the funniest commentary for the movie that I have ever heard!!! He's an awesome companion!! Monday was cool!!! The TRC was just like normal this time and we got to teach for a while about the Plan of Salvation and that was cool. Our investigator cut us off at the end and gave us some advise and stuff, even though they aren't supposed to do that. It's okay though, I'll definitely use it to my advantage!! Tuesday was pretty interesting! The Choir sang Jesus Once of Humble Birth and then the General Primary President spoke to us! I really liked her talk since we sang two primary songs and she talked a little bit about the lyrics and what they meant! There's a lot of meaning in those words!! Wednesday, or yesterday, was the best of the week in my opinion!!! Our district did Hosting for the new missionaries and it reminded me a lot about my first day!!! For Hosting, we take the new missionaries' stuff, like his bags and backpack if they have one, and take him to the Administrative building to get his information of where his classroom and residence is and yeah. We meet them behind the building and take them to their residence, drop off their bags and ask them to take their Preach My Gospel, Scriptures, note taking stuff, and I think that's it (I sent the paper that they gave us for Hosting and should be there soon so you can scan that and put it up on the blog). Then we take them to the bookstore to pick up their bag full of books and materials that they need for the field and class. Then we take them to class and we return to our assigned spot, which is on that paper. My spot was spot #4. It was super fun and it reminded me of my first day!!! I really hope I get to do that again!! Oh, one thing I forgot to mention about my week that happened Saturday or Sunday is that Elder Martinez showed me how to tie my tie with a crazy awesome knot that makes it look cool! I'll send a picture with that soon!! Today, Elder Ferrill got his flight plans as well as Elder Weeks!!! They're really excited and I am too since their mission is about to start!!!!! It's already started, but it will really start, hehe.

Things are good here, food is still eatable, and yeah! Take care and I hope to hear from you soon!!! Love you all!!!

~Elder Bauer~

Thursday, June 9, 2011

District 42 B

"My awesome 8 color scripture marker"

Alex's Desk

The group of missionaries going to Spain

"Me, being weird!"

District 47 C

Provo Temple

Thursday, June 9th 2011

Hey Dad,

I'm glad to hear that you are having fun taking breaks on the simplest of tasks!! I do hope that you keep getting better and improve on your health/strength. Friday was pretty interesting for me. I currently don't even remember what happened, but I can write a letter telling you what happened that day. Saturday I don't remember either. Sunday was Fast and Testimony meeting and one of our districts was leaving and so they all bore their testimonies. For the Temple Walk on Sunday, I took pictures. With an Elder I nicknamed him Elder Broad Shoulders since he has the broadest shoulders ever!!! He's pretty amazing!!! Monday was pretty cool too!!! I was with yet another elder and he's pretty awesome!! At 9 pm when we were in the residence, he let me borrow his mustache (one that is awesome and you just stick on) and I got two pictures with it on!!! I can't wait until you see those!! Monday was pretty cool, and weird!!! At the TRC, instead of teaching, I was an investigator for two of the newish Elders and I gave them too hard of a time, but I didn't know I was supposed to be easy! Later that day my companions and I taught our "progressive investigator" named Carlos and I thought the lesson went really well!!! I already told you about later so yeah!!! Tuesday I had revelation I swear!!! I figured out a way to make the Plan of Salvation simpler!!! I wrote it all down in my Predicar mi Evangelio and yeah!!! My plan is that God wrote a "test" for each of us to take on earth. When we get to earth He gives us a pencil without an eraser and we take it and go through it and answer all of the questions or take the choices that we think are right. When we find out that an answer is wrong, Jesus Christ, provided an eraser for us called the Atonement so that we can fix our mistakes and yeah!!! I also wrote more, but I don't have time to type it up!! I'll have to take a picture of my PME and my scriptures so that you can see how much I've done. Tuesday we also had Elder Kikuchi come and talk to us and it was really funny!! He started off my saying, "I eat a lot of rice, I eat a lot of fish, and I came out short." Hahahaha. Well, I'd better get going. How's everyone doing? How's my bed? Is it surviving through my brother?

~Elder Bauer~

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Thursday, June 02, 2011

¡Hola mamá!
This week has been just like any other really. Wednesday of last week (or the last Wednesday of the month of May) we got new Elders and that was pretty fun! Thursday - Monday Hermano Bell one of our teachers left for a trip so we had a sub that whole time for him!! I really liked Hermano Johnson which was one of our subs and he was pretty fun!!! Sunday I went to choir with two of the new Elders which are called Elder Farnbach and Elder Cannon since no one else wanted to go with me. We sang a pretty cool song that I don't remember the name to. Then that night we had a pretty awesome night!! We didn't go watch a movie since we wanted to watch it in Spanish and it was completely full so we went back to the classroom and watched a lot of Mormon Messages and everyone except for my companions and I were crying. It was funny!!! Then Elder Brandon and Elder Rigsby bore their testimonies and it was really awesome because I felt the Spirit so strongly in there!!! I really loved it!!! Tuesday for the Devotional, we had Elder Packer, no, not the Elder Packer from the 12, but of the 70, came and spoke to us. When I saw who was coming, I just said to myself, "Elder Packer couldn't come so he sent his son" and people around me started to laugh a bit. I didn't really mean it to be funny, but whatever. Then yesterday was pretty interesting as well. Okay, so when my companions, Elder Ferrill, Elder Mockler and I were going back to the room, and got to the door of the building, I reached in to get my card, and it wasn't there. The buildings have a little thing to swipe your card to get in. I then looked at my companions, and they both said that they didn't have their cards. It was pretty funny, we were locked out of our own building! It was a huge fail!!! Oh well, we went to the other side and the door was open since our building is dumb and the doors stay open because of the wind that is coming out of the building.
Today I did a session at the Temple and yeah!!

Oh, one other thing. You'd be surprised how much time I have to read your emails. You can send as many as you want, as long as you want. We can print them out and I can type this reply on something that doesn't time me, so yeah.
Oh yeah, another thing. I'm sending Giselle's reply today or tomorrow and there will be my camera card as well as a sheet of paper or two telling you what pictures are which at the MTC. There are a few before them, but it's okay. I started numbering them from the first one at the MTC, or after shaving dad's hair off. I hope you enjoy them and post them on my blog!!!! Not all of them, but just a few. You should post some of my District pictures as well as pictures with me in them and of my tag and the intensity of them!!! You should definitely post Chalk book on there!!! I hope you like them!!!
How are things at home? How's my brother doing with his money? What has he bought?
I'm sending pictures so yeah! I'm glad to hear that dad is doing better! Is his hair growing? I hope you people have fun in rainy Illinois while I have fun in Sunny Provo!!! =) Take care and I'll talk to you soon! Love you all!!!!

~Elder Bauer~