143 Pounds of Meat

Hey Everyone,

So this week has been pretty weird. I was sick for a couple of days, so I stayed at the apartment with another elder who was also sick. But then I started feeling a ton better, and started doing morning and evening exercises in my room which helped. I went to zone, and had a pretty normal week after that, until yesterday.

Thursday night, I was informed that my companion and I would be participating in a crazy service project for the mission. This Sunday we are doing a special mission devotional on the Savior for Christmas. As part of that, President Fenn decided to make a ton of chili for the mission. So he enlisted the help of about 10 of us young elders, and we went to his house yesterday, to help him get prep work done for the chili. My job that I was given was to cook pork. All. Day. Long. It was awesome. In total, the four elders who were in charge of cooking the meat cooked 143 lbs of meat (as per the subject line of the email). It was a ton of fun, and was a really great break from sitting and doing nothing all day every day. 

After we were done, the elders who were there were able to just have a really nice relaxed conversation with Pres. Fenn. It was super great. We got him to talk about high school, and his mission, and college, and just life. It was amazing to hear him in a very "hair down" situation.

Tonight I (somehow) scored a pair of tickets for the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert in the Conference Center. I am super excited for it!

I hope you all have a great week, and that everything is going well.

Love, 

Elder Bartholomew

Wow! Another Week! Such a Good Subject!

Hey Everyone!

This week has been pretty wild. 

I have helped give, or have given, four blessings this week, because many elders are getting sick. I woke up this morning feeling like absolute garbage, and stayed in most of the day.

On Sunday, the mission was able to go to the First Presidency Devotional in the Conference Center. It was absolutely amazing. I especially loved Sis Eubank's talk.

Monday we had a zone Christmas party, which was pretty good. We had tons of ham, and funeral potatoes, and some really good cake.

Wednesday night I was on an exchange with another elder, as both our companions had another assignment, and we needed to help out in another zone. He's pretty cool, and it was a good break from my current comp.

Thursday after leadership meeting, I became the Assistant to the Assistant to the President. Elder Buers has been sick all week, so Elder Clark has been borrowing different elders for different days to be his companion. It was pretty ok, but I can honestly say that I NEVER want to be an AP. But we were able to go to the gym during dinner instead of eating, and that was really good.

I am under 200lbs!!!!!!

I haven't been this light since....... over a year ago? Some time after high school I think.

But other than being sick today, I feel pretty good.

I have made two patrons cry this week. But in the good way. One came in and had very little information on her dad's side of the family, due to some past stuff in their family. I was able to help her find out more information about her dad who passed away when she was little, and more about her dad's family and ancestors. She was extremely emotional, and very grateful for the service.

Well that's pretty much how this week went.  Life moves on, and its pretty all right most of the time.

Love you all, and hope that you have a good Christmas. I know that this season will mean more to us as we offer ourselves as a gift to the Savior, and try our best to be like him.

Love, 

Elder Bartholomew

Week Something or Other

Hey Everyone!

This week has been crazy. I have helped two lost children (well not children. One was 12 and lost his parents, and one was 14, and didn't make it with his ward group on time to Savior of the World). On Saturday, a group of the elders who had missed out on a mission planned activity the day before, were able to watch Remember the Titans in the Assistants' apartment, and had pizza and food and crap and it was amazing. Watching the movie made me realize how much I miss music, like actual, good, soul music, and made me look forward to being able to listen to it again. It was great.

Sunday was pretty routine, and I had a good time at both Music and the Spoken Word, and at church. I am really excited for the two-hour block, because as a District Leader, I will be able to hold an extra district meeting, and I will be able to cater it for the needs of my district members. I am pretty stoked for it.

I have had some really cool spiritual experiences that have helped me see the Lord's hand in me being here, and has helped me grow to greater love for the people I am serving, and serve with. 

One of these experiences was helping a patron in the FHL with scanning family pictures. I actually felt like a real missionary, because while I was helping this patron with the scanning machines, she talked to me about the gospel, and we had a really amazing discussion. She herself is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and has a daughter on a mission, but it was one of the best conversations I have had while here on my mission. We discussed how a person can truly become converted to the gospel, and what true conversion looks like. 

Today we had the opportunity to go and do an endowment session at the Salt Lake Temple, and before the session started, I was praying to feel known. To feel like I am supposed to be here. To feel like Father is aware of me. After I had finished saying my prayer, one of the temple workers came up to me and started to talk to me. This amazing brother is from Tonga, and had the thickest Tongan accent. I felt so at home, and full of peace and love. It was amazing.

I am seeing improvement in my district, and how they interact with other missionaries outside of the apartment, and with how they have been treating others. So that is good.

Love you all, and I hope that everything is going well.

Love, 

Elder Bartholomew

Hey guys!

So this week has been interesting. Tuesday was transfers, and I was transferred out of the CHL, and back into the Family History Library, on the 3rd floor, to the same zone that I was trained in two months ago. I am the district leader there, and my companion is Elder Skaggs. We came in to the mission the same day, but he served a two-transfer trial mission in Vegas a little bit before coming here, so he has technically been serving for seven months, which means that I am younger in mission age, but am still the senior companion. The other two members of my new district are Elder Lukau and Elder Gorman. Gorman has been out for six months, and Elder Lukau has been out 10 months (I think. It could be that he has 10 months left. or something idk.) so that makes me the youngest elder in the district mission age, while still having to serve as District Leader. 

My companion Elder Skaggs is a new challenge for me to learn how to work with. He has been very... contentious with pretty much every single elder on the mission. He likes to argue, and complain, and is one of the most outwardly negative people I have ever met, who has tons of energy to let everyone know he is negative. He has had some issues with the authority on the mission, which should prove interesting as we are companions, seeing as he is technically the older elder in the companionship, and already has resentment to me because of my unwillingness to back down on the rules. Oh well. C'est la vie.

As Thursday was Thanksgiving, we had the day off because both the FHL and CHL were closed. So me and Elder Clark (one of the Assistants) decided that we wanted to go for a hike up City Creek canyon. It was exactly how I wanted to spend the holiday. We hiked from our apartments, up about 3 miles, and then decided to summit one of the ridges on the north side of the canyon. As we were up there, we saw three deer. A doe, a little tiny two-point, and a pretty decent three-point. I was quite happy, and super stoked to see them. We then hiked back down, and got ready for the Thanksgiving dinner that the mission had. Then we had the rest of the day off, until 6:00, when we watched Rudy as a mission. It was super fun.

Today is now my P-day, so that's kinda weird. Oh well.

Anyways, this week has been pretty OK. We will see how the next few weeks go in this district of elders who do not really get along, and who don't like that I am the District Leader. I'm actually not that worried about it, and think that this will really help me grow in my capability to solve issues between people on a managerial side. 

Hope you all have had a wonderful week, and a good Thanksgiving!

Love,

Elder Bartholomew

Another Week

Hey everyone!

This week has been pretty ok. Nothing super crazy happened. 

The weather has started to grow colder, which I love, and am very grateful for after the hot summer we had. Today it started "snowing" as some Elders chose to call it. I however will refuse to do so, because real snow is real snow.

On Thursday I was able to take my companion and I along with our Zone Leaders, the Johnsons, and go to the Assembly Hall on Temple Square, and listen to a lecture given by a Historian from the Joseph Smith papers, about the newest volume of the papers which are on the book of Abraham and the facsimiles associated with them. It was a very good lecture, and kindled a greater desire to actual put focus and effort towards becoming a scholar. Now the question is a scholar in what. That I do not have an answer for. But I have been experiencing a noticeable change in myself while I have been out. Instead of being so frustrated with my circumstances, i have been learning to just deal with them, and not let my emotions get the better of me. My current companion has really helped me in this regard, as he is extremely difficult to live with and work with. But I have been making the most of my situation, and have learned how to better dive into scripture and gospel study. I also do not care so much about trivial things. I have been learning to let go of any emotion, and situation that doesn't absolutely need to be handled. I can honestly say as well that I really do love my companion as a brother, and would do anything I could for his betterment. 

Anyways, that really wasn't so much about this week as it has been about the last while. 

Transfers are on Tuesday, but hopefully I will still be in my current zone. It has been really nice to be able to be away from the public, and not have to talk to people (who all eventually ask) about where I am from, and having to explain to them that I live 7 minutes away, or 2.023 miles away. That was hard the first two months. I hope that I will be able to continue on in a non patron facing zone. But not my will, so if Heavenly Father desires me to be elsewhere, I will go with a happy heart, knowing that I am on his errand, and that with his help, I can do everything that is asked of me.

I love you guys, and pray for you on a daily basis.

Love,

Elder Bartholomew

Yo Yo Yo!

Hey everyone!

How is life? 

Its pretty monotonous at this point here. Wake up at 6:30, study/get ready/exercise, 9:30 be at zone and working, 12:00 lunch, 1:00 be back to zone, 4:15 leave work and go pick up mail for the district, 6:00 be back to work, 8:30 go home, Rinse, Repeat

I don't really have much to say, other than my Tongan is getting better, at least reading it and understanding it. 

It's a pretty slow week to be 100% honest, and we didn't really do anything fun or out of the ordinary. 

Tonight should be good though. There is a concert at the Tabernacle from the National Guard in honor of the 100 year end to World War I, which should be pretty awesome.

These two low-quality pics are pictures of what I do all day. I read "the record kept among [us]" so that's pretty great. 

Anyways, love you all. Hope your week is good, and that everything goes well for you.

Love,

Elder B

Week 15ish (actually Week 12)

Hey everyone!

I would like to start of by apologizing for how depressing my letters may have been as of late. It's been a rough little bit. But I am doing a lot better now.

New reading glasses.

We started off this week with a small bout of sickness, but we pushed through and had a pretty OK time. I have been able to spend more time working on poetry and music of my own composition, as my companion has been sick. So I try things out on the keyboard that I have, and have been working on some stuff purely for fun and to pass the time.

Monday night, I wasn't doing super well, so I asked one of the elders that I am really close to for a priesthood blessing. First we talked, and I let out all of my emotions, and my frustrations at myself, and everything, and then he and his companion gave me one of the most powerful blessings I may have ever been given. The Spirit was so strong, and, as per the fashion of the Bartholomews, I cried heavily. It was amazing. For the first time in a very long time, I can actually genuinely say that I am happy. I am glad that I am here on this mission, and that I am having these experiences. Yeah, the situation isn't great. Oh well. That won't change for another two years. But what can change (and already is changing) is my attitude towards being here. 

I have started to change my thought process from "I have x amount of months left on the mission" to, "I have x amount of months to do as much as I can while I am here, so I best get going"

I am honestly super pumped to do stuff and things and to be here.

Here are some pics

Elder B with Thor's hammer @ This is the Place

Bomb Stir Fry

The video is after the service project up at This Is The Place. Clark is the one saying missionaries are not allowed to have fun.

Anyways, I love you all, and pray for you. I love to hear from people. Literally my favorite thing each week is seeing pictures of people doing life things.

Love,

Elder Bartholomew