Week 1 in Greeley

So Family,

This week was kind of crazy.  I got to Greeley on Monday.  We cover just a University Ward (University of Northern Colorado) that meets at the Institute for church at 9:30 on Sundays.  Our Bishop is Bishop Russon.  One set of Spanish elders lives with us in the farmhouse.  There are two sets of Spanish elders that cover the Greeley 5th branch.  What might end up happening in the summer is that I might get a Spanish comp and we'll cover Spanish as well as University, since there's nobody there in the summer--that's wishful thinking though, and I'm not sure.  

We have 3 progressing investigators right now--Sam Munson, Catherine Choy, and Becky Merle.  We had a lesson with Sam on Tuesday this week.  He knows the church is true--probably more than anyone that I've met.  He has such a strong testimony, but his family is Catholic, and they don't approve at all.  He has been debating whether to tell them or not, and we taught him an encouraging lesson on Tuesday.  We met again with him on Thursday, and we asked him how the past few days were.  He said nothing much had happened, and then he said, "Actually, I don't know why I said that."  He had a great spiritual experience that let him know he needed to be baptized, and soon.  He decided to be baptized on April 21st and this Saturday he will do so!  He's so awesome.  Catherine Choy is his girlfriend who has basically the same background.  She was Catholic, didn't agree with many of the beliefs, and didn't know what to do with her relationship with God.  Sam started meeting with the elders here, so he shared with her.  She said she hasn't felt closer to God ever before.  She'll be baptized in May when her one supportive friend gets home from college.  Becky is the friend of a member in the ward.  She has been reading and praying about the Book of Mormon, and now she has faith in Christ, but her parents are encouraging her to look into other churches too, so tonight we'll probably end up resolving some of her concerns.  

Last night there was a fireside entitled "He came for Me" that the YSA Institute put on.  Yes mom, it's that song from Women at the Well.  It was so spiritual, and guess who sang that particular song?  Jenny Van Wagenen. Yup the same one from Germany, so she's in the ward too.  Crazy, huh?  It was an awesome fireside, full of testimonies of the atonement.  The work here is going great.  I love Greeley even though it stinks like cow poop all the time :)  Love you guys so much.

Love,
Elder Logan Bryan

Squirrel chillin' outside the Institute on a hot Day!

Hello From Cheyenne

Family,

Don't have a lot of time, so I'll be in Greeley serving in the University 1st Singles Branch.  This week was great, it was hard to say goodbye to people though.  I'll be in a truck, with Elder Dodd who is spanish-speaking.  It'll be awesome!  Here's my email to president:

"Well this week has been a crazy week. We went to the temple this week which was awesome, and we had a good time there. I love the temple, and it has helped me grow closer to God so much (both before my mission and during it).  I am very excited to be serving in Greeley.  And I think I'll be able to grow much more--but I guess every opportunity in the mission is an opportunity to grow much more.

This week we've been finalizing some things in the area, making sure that Elder Anderson is all set to take it over.  I'm really grateful Elder Samiu is coming into the area.  He'll bring a measure of love and of the Spirit that will greatly affect the work in this area.  I have loved my time here, and things should be happening soon where some investigators will be baptized. Rita is doing well, and we're just waiting for her to quit her job.  Jiselle had a blowup this week with her fellowshipper family, and we talked to her for a while.  She was just going to quit coming to church, and stop coming because she said "I don't expect you guys and the people at church to trust me. I'm not the same as you guys and I don't believe what you guys believe..." She is desperately in need of the gospel, and I bore my testimony to her telling her that the only way she'll find true happiness in life is through God and through the gospel.  She teared up and said "I know".  So I hope things will turn around there.  K'Neesha should get baptized soon and I hope that will go through.  I feel badly that we weren't able to get more work done, and covering another ward over the last two weeks has hindered the work in Buffalo Ridge, but I guess it's the same work, right?  We  weren't able to do a lot of tracting, but I know Elder Anderson and Elder Samiu will pick up the work.  I have loved serving around the people and the investigators, and growing in love and testimony.  It has been hard to say goodbye to people, but I know this transfer is what I need.

Thanks for being such a great example to me President.  I love serving with you, and I'm looking forward to this transfer. 

Love,
Elder Logan Bryan"



Love you guys,
Elder Logan Bryan

Week 6--Last Week in B-Ridge

Well Family,

How are you doing? Sounds like you're chillaxing on a cruise in nice warm weather.  The weather here is back to snowy.  Ya good ol' Wyoming!  Gotta love it.  This week was pretty great.  If I didn't mention before, we're in a trio for the next week because Elder Davidson (who has been with us for a week) had a companion who had to go home for back surgery.  So he's been with us for a week and a half.

Cool Experience of the week:  So we were visiting Less Actives and went to one's house.  On the way we saw a potential's door was open, and said we would go back after we visited this family.  The LA family wasn't home, so we went to this potential's house, and he let us in.  His name is Alex Garcia.  He's middle-aged, and a nice guy.  He let us in and started talking and then asked us about our church.  Elder Anderson told him a little about it, and he totally shot that down.  He told us: "I don't believe in your religion. It's a man-made religion. I need God's religion. How could Joseph Smith be a prophet when the Bible never talks about him. Why do I need anything but the Bible, it has all the truth in it and I don't need anything else..." and so on and so forth.  He kept saying that after anything we tried to tell him.  Again, and again he kept denying the truth of what we were telling him.  Finally, I felt like I needed to speak up and open my mouth.  I did so, and here's a little of what I said--probably not word for word, but close: "Alex, we believe that the Bible and the Book of Mormon support each other.  They testify of each other.  The Bible in itself COULD NOT BE TRUE, if things outside of it did not happen.  In Ezekiel 37, The Bible testifies of a book coming from Judah and from Joseph, In Malachi 4 it says Elijah the prophet will come before Christ's second coming, in the New Testament Christ testifies of "other sheep" that he must bring into His fold.  These things had to happen for it to be true.  I know that those other sheep were the people in the Book of Mormon, and that it is a true account.  You know about the Holy Ghost, and I have received a witness from the Holy Ghost that it is true.  So can you.  All you need to do is pray and ask."  It was intense, and I had words put into my mouth as I testified.  The Spirit was so strong.  Alex underwent a complete shift, and you could visibly see the change that the Spirit had wrought in him.  He ended our lesson by saying he wanted to read the Book of Mormon and to come to church to try out our religion and see what it was about.  It was one of the most intense experiences that I have ever had, and one of the most clear times the Spirit was in action. 

I loved Conference, and especially Elder Holland's talk, Elder Eyring's talk, and Elder O. Vincent Haleck's talk on Vision.  That was a direct answer to prayer. Don't have a ton of time. But I know the church is true.  I have felt the Spirit testify again and again to me and to others of it's truthfulness.  Let the Spirit in, open your hearts.  I love Christ. 


Love,
Elder Logan Bryan

Quickie

Hey I don't have a ton of time today.  8 minutes in fact.  We're just taking our lunch break to email today because we are going to the temple next week and have to switch a temple day for a pday.  This week was good.  Not a lot of news on the home front.  We have definitely learned a ton this week.  We had set a goal to get 70 Quality Gospel Conversations this week, and we were doing really well and on track to do that, and then things got crazy.  I know we can't make excuses, but we got so close this week.  Closer than I ever have before.  I know that the Lord will bless us for this.  We only got 62 QGCs this week, but we definitely worked hard.  I love working.  There is no joy in missionary that can come without work. 

Well Ricky and Erik bailed on us probably 3 times this week, and we are going to have a final make or break lesson with them.  It isn't fair to them or us to keep trying and keep getting our hopes up.  Obviously right at this moment in time, they aren't ready to make a covenant with God and keep it.  It's just so hard seeing so many people get so close.  We will have to see what we can do to help them out this week, and if they really want to progress and make God #1 in their lives or not.  Rita is still the same, we're trying to get as many people as we can to apply for the job that she's working, so she can quit.  We'll see how it goes.  I have fasted, prayed, and worked to try and help Rita be baptized, and I know that it's now in the Lord's hands.  This week I fasted for revelation from conference, but mostly I fasted for someone to be baptized.  I don't know who, and I don't know how, and I don't even know if that's appropriate to fast for that, but I want to be able to fulfill my purpose so badly.  I want to be able to see someone change their life around so much and finally find true happiness.  It's been kind of frustrating, but that's how it goes.  Somehow, some way, I will have learned what I needed to learn from these experiences, and be a stronger and more diligent missionary because of it.  It's definitely not a cakewalk, but it's so worth it. 

I love the gospel.  It's true.  As we strive to live it like we never have before--with more purpose and fervor than we have ever had before--we will be awakened to a new reality of love and life that come through lives lived for Jesus Christ.  We seek Him, and we find new life.  We live this new life, and we find Him in our eternal home.  I love the gospel. 


Love,
Elder Logan Bryan

Week 3

Elder Anderson and Me at the Airport/Air National Guard Base

Hola Mi Familia, 

Well this week was pretty good.  Well, actually this week kind of stunk it up big time as far as the work goes, but I'm happy.  What can I say?  I'm in the servicio del Señor.  What greater thing can I be doing?  Not a thing. 

Ricky and Erik did not show up to church, and that means that Ricky can't be baptized, and I don't think we have time to teach Erik everything so he can be baptized this Saturday, but we'll try.  Rita we taught this week, and it was a good lesson. We challenged her to pray for a miracle so she can come back to church and be baptized and she said she would.  Well one of our investigators' husband lost his job, and we're hoping he can get hired, and then Rita will be able to quit!  It would be awesome.  We taught his wife, Sunshine, this week, and she had followed our invitation to pray.  She was reading a pamphlet we left her, and then felt a strong urge to read the Book of Mormon, and then while reading that, she felt a strong urge to pray. She said it was an intense and emotional experience.  She'll definitely be baptized, and we just have to get her to progress more.  We got to do a ton of service this week.  Probably like 8 hours.  But it was good.  I love doing service, and I love the service that teaching the gospel provides.  Even though right now in the Buffalo Ridge ward, there aren't very many people wanting to jump into the baptismal font, there will be.  We work hard, we do our best, we give it our all, and we go further than we thought we could.  That's the only thing we can do.  I want my mission to be counted toward my eternal blessings and salvation.  AND!  "We know it is by GRACE we are saved, AFTER ALL WE CAN DO."  I can't afford not to put my all into this awesome and totally rewarding work.  It is the only intelligent thing to do to work harder than ever. 

Not much to report on this week.  We had a leadership training meeting in Fort Collins on Thursday, and Elder Anderson tore it up in our area while I was gone.  I got to see Elder Washburn, and man he's such a stud.  I love that guy.  I'm so thankful for my trainer.  This will be my last week as senior companion this transfer because part of training is letting the trainee be senior companion.  So the next time I'll be senior companion in an email that I send will be in a new area.  Crazy.  I got to see one of our ward missionaries swear into the Air National Guard.  That was sweet.  Missionary work is awesome.  There is no way around that.  I have figured out lately that there's no point in being out here if we're not going to be happy. Happiness is a crazy thing.  I think Heavenly Father blesses us with it at the weirdest times in our lives--the times when we feel like we shouldn't be happy at all because we're tired, or there's no success, or whatever.  But we're happy.  I know that only the gospel can provide such a happiness. 

We got pulled to give Sacrament Meeting talks this Sunday 3 minutes before it started.  I gave my talk on the atonement.  There's no way around the atonement.  It is the center of everything we believe.  Our faith is centered on Jesus Christ and his Atonement.  When we exercise faith that we will change, we will repent, or somebody else will do the same, we are completely and fully putting trust, faith, and hope in the Atonement of our Savior and Redeemer of our souls. How can we fail when the Savior of all, the man who commited no sin, the perfect, and perfectly loving Brother that we all have is standing by our sides?  We cannot, and we will not--if we put our faith in him.  Like Nephi says: we know that God is able to do all things for us, if we just exercise faith in Him;  "Wherefore, let us be faithful to him."  Recommit to do it.  Live by faith, walk by faith, and change by faith; others will do the same.  We all are on the path to our Father, and the only way we can get there is through Jesus Christ, our Mediator, our Lord, our Salvation.  Let us hold fast to His rod, and eat of the fruit He is so willing to give us--through his infinite, eternal, perfect atonement.  Let us love Him.  I love you all. 

Love,
Elder Logan Bryan

Awesome Ward Missionaries:  Courtney and Sterling Law and their kids Graham and Maylee

Week 2

Sweet Mustachioed Bug with Sweet Mustachioed Missionary

So family, this week has been stinking crazy. 

I have been out of the area for three days this week on exchanges and meetings and such.  So not a lot of work was done, but what did happen was pretty good.

Rita has fallen off the map because of work.  She wasn't able to go to the movies we invited her to see--Prophet of the Restoration with us and her fellowshippers, and 17 Miracles with the High Priest group activity.  We have fasted for her this week, and we really hope a miracle happens with her.  We know the Lord will bring about her conversion in His time, we just hope it's soon.  Rita is amazing.  I know she will be baptized, it's just a matter of when.  She is so prepared, so willing, so golden.  We just have to find out what more we need to do to help her progress. 

We didn't get to see Ricky or Erik because they bailed on us a couple of times. They didn't come to church either, which is depressing, but their mom texted their fellowshipper and said they didn't make it to church this week because they forgot about the time change, and they would be there next week for sure.  We're earnestly hoping and praying for them to progress and be ready for baptism.  I know they will be ready to be baptized if they keep doing what they're supposed to and make this a priority.  It's hard for them to see the importance right now, but it will bless their lives so much.

K'neesha is doing well, we have now taught her everything, and we're just hoping and praying she can get everything ready to be baptized.  It seems like we have so many people so close, it's just making and being able to take that last step which is always blocked or hindered by something.  There is truly opposition in all things, but we just keep going no matter what, and helping others use their moral agency to choose for themselves is the joy of the work.  It's also the greatest source of sadness, but how can there be one without the other?

What do we have if we don't have this?  If there is no God, if there is no church, if there is no atonement, then there is no point.  Without a plan, without a purpose, there is no reason, there is nothing for which to live.  But if these things exist--and not only exist, but persist--then we have everything to live for.  There is a God, and He loves us infinitely, perfectly, and individually.  He has restored His church, and it is His kingdom on the Earth.  The atonement is real, and no change or progress or betterment would or could possibly take place without its penetrating and perfect reach.  The plan of salvation is God's plan for us to be happy. Happiness comes through God, Jesus Christ, and the families they give to us.  There is a purpose, and it is to seek out and find the joy that God is so ready to give us.  Jesus Christ lives, and His complete and undying gift to us is the atonement:  the path to perfection.  It's a path of stumbling and of getting back up.  But it is a path of complete happiness, rewarding progress, and eternal existence.  I know this and love it, and continue to seek happiness.  Find it, because it is worth it.  I love you all. 

Love,
Elder Logan Bryan

Elder Anderson and the Bug

                     

My Grandpa, Elder Gochis, Me, and Elder Anderson

Last Tranfer's District

What a Week

My family,

I love you very much, and I've missed you more than normal this week. This week tested my faith, and my fortitude.  We had several ups and downs this week, and I hope that in the future there will be more ups than downs, but that's how it goes. 

We had several great things happen this week and a couple of downers too.  We got to meet with Ricky and Erik Garnica (14 and 13 years old) and they committed to come to church.  And they did which was a miracle and we taught them after church at the Browns' (an awesome family in the ward.  He used to be bishop before Bishop Ross, and Sister Brown's brother just got called to the Nevada Las Vegas mission Spanish speaking!), and they committed to be baptized on March 24th.  They seem different this time around and they seem more committed and more aware of the commitment that is necessary to be a member of the church.  They are very receptive, and I hope and pray they are ready and will continue on this path.  Rita this week was our biggest let down. She has been called back into work, and now has to work Sundays with no immediate end in sight.  She is upset about having to work but corporate told her they couldn't switch around everybody's schedules, and she has to work Sundays now. Which means her baptism will be pushed back indefinitely.  It is rough, and it made me do a lot of self-reflecting on how much I had taken this for granted, and how much I needed to improve. Rita has been so golden, she has progressed amazingly, and her husband has been so supportive, and now the situation is hard, and could be that way for a while.  We fasted for her yesterday, and I know whatever happens will happen for a reason.  It's just been hard to see someone so ready have only one thing holding them back.  One thing they don't have much control over.  We're going to keep trying.  K'neesha has been doing pretty well, we're trying to jump a few hurdles with her, and as long as that happens, her baptism will be set.  We taught Sunshine, the sister of a member of our ward, and talked with her atheist husband a lot.  He is a really great guy, just sees things differently.  That went pretty well, and we'll keep working with them. 

Things have been going great in the good old state of Wyoming.  I find it hard sometimes to look at my trials in an eternal perspective.  I think of the things I go through, and although they are nothing compared to Christ's, or the Prophet Joseph's, they test my will.  I think of the promise-filled, and peace-giving comfort the Lord gave to Joseph Smith while undergoing surely some of the most painful and absolute loneliness:  "My Son, peace be unto thy soul...". What greater witness can we have than from God?  He gives us the peace we seek, He supplies us with the tools we need to tackle the trying tribulation that so often plagues us--His weak, mortal children.  Then I think of the self-inventory that the Lord invites when he sheds eternal perspective on the situation: "The Son of Man hath descended below them all.  Art thou greater than he?"  What comfort comes from considering the complete and truthful line from the hymn:  "Who, who can understand? He, only one."  I love Him. 

Love,
Elder Logan Bryan