Elder James Bartholomew

Short Email

Hello everyone!

This week has been a really good week.

Monday night there was a branch dinner, and we had a live performer who sang Hawaiian music for us and it was really good.

Tuesday we celebrated my companion’s and another elder’s year mark, by going to Crown Burger. It was a good time and it was really nice to be able to celebrate with them.

On Wednesday Elder Lane and I went to the temple and had quite an enjoyable experience.

Thursday night I had the opportunity to take my companion and another companionship to see the dress rehearsal for the British Pageant in the Conference Center. It was so amazing and it felt so good to hear and see that show that I love so much. I was able to talk with and reconnect with some of the cast and crew, and it was a very needed break for me. I felt the spirit so strongly and had such an enjoyable time.

Today we as a mission are heading down to Manti, to see the pageant, so please forgive me for the short email.

I hope you all have a good week and that everything this last week went well!

Love,

Elder Bartholomew

PIzza or Something

Talofa!

This week has been pretty good!

It started out kinda slow, but the end of the week was wonderful.

I got a hold of an album of Samoan songs, and traditional chants, and it has really improved my mood the past week.

This week has been pretty good!

It started out kinda slow, but the end of the week was wonderful.

I got a hold of an album of Samoan songs, and traditional chants, and it has really improved my mood the past week.

On Wednesday we had a mission conference and it was one of the best I think I have had my whole mission. I learned a few things and the spirit of the meeting was so good. The Assistants to the President spoke about unity, and about how to grow spiritually and in brotherly love towards each other. It was such a good conference, and I needed it so badly.

Thursday and Friday this week, President Fenn hosted the missionaries at his house for a night of pizza making. He has a really nice pizza oven in his back yard that we used. It was so much fun. The missionaries were divided into two groups, one for each night. Because I'm in the office, my companion and I, along with the assistants and the other two missionaries from my zone, were assigned to help set up and clean up for both nights. It was a real treat. Thursday night I spent the bulk of the time with Elder Devine and helped him make his pizza, and with Elder Vaka, our new assistant. It was tons of fun. Friday night I was tasked with the oven and with the job of actually cooking the pizzas. It was so much fun, and was super relaxing and therapeutic.

Also on Friday, the former Elder Buers showed up, and he and his fiance came to the Friday night pizza thing. It was really good to see him.

That's pretty much it for this week, but here are some pictures!

Pretty Solid Week

This is basically my job. I help train new seniors, like Sister Evans here, how to use family history,

and how to use the computer. The only problem in this instance is that Sister Evans

is a professional genealogist, so I spent our whole instruction time learning from her!

Hello!

This week has been maybe one of the busiest weeks that I have had since coming into the mission office.

We had a few of our senior missionaries out this week, so I had to fill in teaching some classes last minute. They went well and I was glad with how the classes turned out.

I also was able to teach a lesson on D Day, because the 75th anniversary was the other day. Those classes went really well.

I'm getting really comfortable with teaching large groups of people a variety of subjects, which is an unexpected blessing from being here.

I have some pictures from this week, but honestly not much has happened. We did get pizza at the Little Ceasar's in Rose Park on Tuesday, and I drove past my house (well I drove past my street, and could see my house from where we were), and that was pretty weird, and kinda sucked, but it doesn't matter where you serve, it matters how you serve.

It was national doughnut day yesterday, so the 4 of us in the zone went to Dunkin Doughnuts, and got free doughnuts. It was a good change of pace.

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Bartholomew

This was dinner at some point this week It is BBQ shredded chicken sandwich.

Pizza from Rose Park Little Cesear's

Salt Lake Temple from the apt

Add caption

with macaroni salad. It was a pretty solid meal.

Boring Week

Hey everyone!

This week has been OK. It’s both flown by and has dragged on.

This is going to be a really short email, because not much really happened this week. I have been working on some new training to help teach the new missionaries coming into the mission how to use computers and the family search program.

We had a service project on Thursday night helping plant new flowers at the Beehive House. We were scheduled to take about 2 hours, but we had more elders than they expected us to bring, so we finished in about 30 minutes. It was fun though. Felt good to plant some flowers and be in the dirt for a little instead of in the office and at a computer.

That pretty much sums up the week.

Later today we are having a zone activity at the mission executive secretary’s house in Farmington, so that should be fun.

Hope you all had a wonderful week, and I hope that this upcoming one is even better!

Love,

Elder Bartholomew

From the service project on Thursday

May 18th

Celebrating Elder Allison's year mark at J-Dawgs

Hola!

This week has been pretty good.

After emails last week, Elder Alverson (who I trained and who went home early) stopped by for a little, and we talked and caught up. It was so good.

Monday wasn’t anything special, but it wasn’t terrible.

On Tuesday we celebrated Elder Allison’s year mark by going to J-Dawgs. It was pretty fun to go out and celebrate his time here and time left. That night as we were heading home from the office, I saw my friend Ben on temple square. I was able to talk with him for a couple of minutes, and reconnect. It was such a wonderful experience, seeing as he is leaving on his mission soon, and I won’t be able to see him before he leaves. It was such a tender mercy for me.

Wednesday was a holiday. It was the first day of the year that we have been allowed to take our jackets off while outside. Our mission is jackets all the time from September 15th to May 15th. It has been really nice not having to wear a suit coat all day, and since I am not in a patron facing zone, I won’t have to wear my jacket every day during work either.
Thursday and Friday we’re both really good for similar reasons. Both days I was able to attend a Q&A with my mission president. He opened the floor up, and taught really good principles, and both sessions were really good and I learned a lot.

Today has been pretty good, and that's my week.

Hope that you all have a wonderful week, and that everything goes well for you!

Elder Bartholomew

Ben & Elder B

Week Something

Elder Devine and I looking mad for no reason at all

Greetings!

This week has been pretty decent. Nothing crazy happened, but it was still a solid week.

On Sunday we watched a fireside broadcast by Elder Cook of the presidency of the Seventy. He and his wife spoke together about marriage. It was a really good devotional, but it was slightly distracting for some of the Elders hahaha. Of course, I would NEVER be one of those ones distracted by that topic haha.

On Monday we didn’t have anything going on in the evening, so we played a game of soccer. It was fun as always, and provided a good distraction from the fact that I am in Utah. I’m getting progressively better, and have been able to run longer without getting as tired.

Tuesday was a really solid day. I taught two classes to seniors who are preparing to leave the mission, and was told by a few in both classes that I did really well. That night, my companion and I went to the temple to do a session with a couple other Elders, and a senior sister whose names we were proxy for. I have helped her previously in family history, and we found out that we are distant cousins. She asked me if I would go through for her deceased husband. It was such a powerful experience. I felt so much peace and had some questions answered during the session.

Wednesday was interesting because I had an allergy attack in the office. Someone brought in guacamole and the particulates in the air were heavy enough to cause me to start having a reaction. Yay allergies! So I didn’t really do anything all day. I took a nap in another part of the office at someone else’s desk as they were working.

Nothing happened on Thursday. Like at all. It was such an off day. I finished all of the projects that I was working on early in the day, so I did some extended study. In the afternoon my companion had an appointment, so I had to wait in the lobby of the place we were at. 2 sister missionaries from the Salt Lake mission were also there, and one of them struck up a conversation with me after my companion went into his appointment. We talked for a little about the work we were both engaged in, and for the first time, talking with a proselyting missionary didn’t make me feel absolutely terrible. I still sometimes think it would be nice to be serving elsewhere, but I can finally say that I am glad to have been serving where I have been, and that is a blessing in and of itself.

Friday was a pretty good day. We had our mission conference up Parley’s Canyon, at a park near the golf course up there. It was awesome. We were taught about Joseph Smith and about the Restoration of the gospel. It felt amazing to be up in the mountains, and not in the city. I really needed it. What I didn’t need however was the sunburn that I received. I didn’t think to bring a hat or sunscreen, because the weather was going to be cold when we got there. It was about 45 degrees when we got there, but then it heated up and felt pretty hot as we sat on tables in the sunlight for a few hours. I have a pretty gnarly burn on my forehead, my nose, and on my arms. I guess that’s what happens when you work inside of buildings all day every day for a year. Oh well. I still had a great time.

Today has been all right. Nothing going on today, just normal preparation day activities.

Well that’s pretty much it for this week. Hope you all had a good week as well.

Love,

Elder Bartholomew

Solid

Hey everyone!

This week has been pretty alright.

After I finished emails last week, I went on a hike with a few other Elders. It was absolutely splendid! We hiked up the Red Butte mountain and had a great time. The weather was perfect, visibility was endless. It was especially nice to be able to get out of the concrete jungle, and the day to day of office work, and get above it all in a very literal sense of the word. Seeing the world like that has always given me needed perspective of what is good, and important and what i need to work on or let go of. It was precisely what i needed.

On Monday, we had a special mission conference in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square. President and Sister Fenn taught about the Atonement and the last week of the Savior’s life, and on witnesses of the resurrected Savior. It was a wonderful meeting, and I had many moments of spiritual confirmation, and I absolutely needed it.

On Thursday, most of the young Elders in the mission office went out to eat dinner at JDawgs, which is a stellar hot dog place on Main Street in Salt Lake. It was a ton of fun, and it was such a nice day out that we decided to walk there instead of taking the Trax line down to it.

On Friday we were given permission to go down the the Mt Timpanogas temple and do a session with the senior missionaries in our zone. It was absolutely amazing, especially after having just watched the live press conference with President Nelson and other members of church leadership talk about the details for the renovations and remodeling of temple square. I'm pretty stoked about the plans, and it should be awesome when its done.