Crazy Week!

So my family,

This week was pretty awesome!  We had a mission tour this week where Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Seventy came and spoke to us.  It was fantastic.  Elder Robbins talked about how in life, and in the mission, we needed to be 100% responsible for everything. The second we place blame or make excuses, we lose control, and we do not own up to the second half of the gift of agency, responsibility.  He taught us a lot from a business side of things because he was a businessman and part-owner of Franklin-Covey.  It was a stellar conference. On Wednesday we had a leadership conference with him, where I was able to see Elder Anderson!  And then on Friday, we had the mission tour for the whole north half of the mission.  Lots of amazing stuff we learned from him, and I will forever remember the need to be 100% responsible. 

We were able to meet with Paul quite a bit this week, and he is set to be baptized this Saturday.  I think he is really going to make it, and I think he is ready for it. He is full of faith and wants so much to be able to please Father in Heaven and do what He asks him to.  We met with Becky again this week, and she is still awesome!  She didn't miss a day of reading the Book of Mormon and praying over the summer.  She said she went to other churches, but never felt the same as when she goes to our church.  She said her parents are super supportive of her decision to be LDS, and she has even been telling people that she's a Mormon!  We knew we just needed to invite her to be baptized, and she said that she wanted to be, but promised herself that she would read the Book of Mormon all the way through before she got baptized.  We asked her to set a date when she thought she would be ready, and she is going to be baptized on September 22nd!  It's awesome!  I know the summer was her time of trial, and she has been prepared for baptism this month.  It's amazing the ways the Lord works in people's lives.

Here's the miracle of the week!  So Elder Stanger and I had tracted a big apartment complex close to campus during the summer, but nobody was home, and we figured it would fill up as school started.  So for some reason as Elder Hernandez and I were deciding where to tract this week, it kept coming back into my mind.  School starts tomorrow and most people moved in this past week.  So we decided to go tract this big complex again.  We tracted one or two floors the first night we tracted, and not a whole lot happened.  So we went on the next day, and we were tracting again, and again this complex popped into my mind, and I thought we should go there and tract.  So we did.  We tracted a few doors and not a lot happened again, but we tracted into one door, and a guy came out and started talking to us.  His name was Paul, and he talked to us about how he had a lot of Mormon friends, but didn't believe in God, so he wasn't into the religion. Then a girl came out of the apartment, and started smoking and asking us very personal questions--she had kind of a rebellious attitude or countenance.  I thought she was a person that would never ever listen to us or accept the gospel--Wow, God showed me not to judge.  And we talked with her for a while--her name is Sharron.  She started asking us about what Mormons were like, or how we lived, and how we had so many rules, etc.  Then she started opening up about how she used to as a little girl pray to God and she felt safe and that He was there and cared about her. She said that now when she prays she doesn't feel that at all.  She said she wanted to change her life.  We testified of the atonement, and you could tell it impacted her very much.  Her countenance changed, and she said that she wanted to go to church.  Here friend Paul encouraged her to go to our church, and she ended our conversation by telling us that she was very excited to go to our church, and she was excited to meet with us the next day! Wow, what a change. So the next day, she wasn't able to meet with us, and then on Sunday, right before Church, she texted us that she was nervous to go and didn't have any church clothes.  But she said she could still meet with us.  Then later on that day, she texted us that she thought we were sent to her to inspire her to go back to her church, and that she didn't really feel like she needed to meet with us.  Then we texted her back that we knew it wasn't a coincidence that we met her and that God had blessings in store for her, and that we are God's servants.  Then she said she would meet with us, and so we met with her yesterday!  She has questions and concerns, not only with our religion, but with her own as well.  She is sincere and wants to change her life.  We are meeting with her again this week.  It was a miracle, and I know that God led us to meet her that night, and I know that through feeling the Spirit and applying the atonement, she will be able to feel the cleansing power of Christ.

I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and that He lives and loves us and guides His work and His church.  There is no greater calling than to declare the gospel and see people change their lives.  Miracles are around us, and we just need to take the time and learn to recognize them.  I love being a missionary!

Love,

Elder logan Bryan

Sorry not a lot of Time

Groundbreaking for building in Yuma, Greeley Stake

Hey Family!

This week was great!  Elder Hernandez came on his mission from Spanish Fork, UT.  He originally is from D.F.  Yes he is extremely fluent in Español.  He is a good, obedient missionary who I am definitely going to learn a lot from. Y Hablamos espanol muchas veces durante el dia.  I'll share with you my email to President Toombs today since I don't have much time.  I love you!  Don't share this with everyone please!  Love you again!

I know the gospel is true.  There are a lot of good things happening in our area! Lots!  We should be getting a lot of new investigators this week. 

I love you so much,

Elder Logan Bryan

Elders Hernandez, Oliva, Calquin, Gable, Viraldo, and Me
FUN STUFF!!!

Still in the Good Old Cow Town, and I'm getting a Grandson!

Hey Family!

I'm still in Greeley.  Yes, I'm getting a new companion in an hour and a half.  His name is Elder Hernandez.  I've only met him a couple of times. It's interesting because he trained an elder that came out with me (so he trained the same time Elder Washburn trained me).  He also trained an elder at the same time I trained Elder Anderson.  I've respected him a lot every time I've met him at the trainers meetings.  He is a good missionary.  Elder Stanger is going to Broomfield for ten days to work in a ward down there, and will go home in 10 days. I'm going to miss him a lot.  He has taught me a lot and I've learned a ton from his example. Elder Anderson who was transferred to Aurora last transfer is now going to be training!!!! Which means, I will have a grandson in the mission, and Elder Washburn has a great grandson!  I'm so excited for him to train, and he's really nervous, but he'll do a phenomenal job.

I don't have a ton of time, but the work is still going well.  It was our last week in the Peakview Ward this last week, and it will be in good hands next transfer.  We will only be covering University Ward, which will be awesome!  I don't know if I told you yet, but Becky (who Elder Dodd and I were teaching before she went home for the summer in Littleton) is getting back on Wednesday.  She has been talking to Erica, her friend in the ward, and she has felt terribly for not going to church all summer.  That kind of stinks.  But what is awesome is she told Erica she hasn't missed ONE day of reading The Book of Mormon and praying! Wow! As of Wednesday, she was in Alma 44!  Awesome!  I'm so excited for her to get back, and I think she'll be baptized very soon.  Paul is still doing great!  He came to a baptism on Saturday, and we've been teaching him still.  We'll teach him again tonight, and he should be baptized a week from this Saturday!  He's full of faith.  He has some great fellowship, and I think the Institute is going to ask him to be the choir pianist.  Everybody loves him and his piano skills!

The zone is changing a lot this transfer.  Well, there should be  lot more to report this next week, but things are going great!  I'm excited for good things to happen, and I know the Lord will place us in the right situations and guide us to those who are searching for the gospel. The gospel is what brings true peace and true happiness.  I love it, and I love Christ.  He is our Savior! 

Love,

Elder Logan Bryan

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HERMANA BRYAN (Kenna :D)

Well Family,

 

Obviously it's Kenna's Birthday. I love you Kenna, you're amazing!  I'm going to try and send you something soon. I don't have your address, so I'll have to get it.

 

This week was pretty good, but full of administrative stuff again. It never goes away, but such is life. Sam Munson is back in town after being gone for 6 weeks in Iowa. It was great to see him again. This week we taught Paul several times. We went over to his apartment for lunch and to meet his roommate, which was good. He is still doing really well. His faith is amazing. He still has his hesitations, his moments of doubt, but he is going forward with what he knows God is leading him to. We had several good lessons with him where we were able to clarify some questions he has and clear up doubts. It's been amazing teaching Paul. He truly is elect (by definition: In D&C it defines the elect as those that hear the voice of God and harden not their hearts.) In one of his prayers, Paul asked Heavenly Father to bless him to grow in faith and have the courage to do what he knew he needed, even if it was different than what he had been taught all his life. He wasn't able to make it to church this week because he woke up sick, but we'll be teaching him several times this week, and we'll push his baptism back a week. It's been great!

 

We have been working with Kelsey Murray (Recent Convert) to invite one of her friends that we tracted into, named Katie, to come to an appointment with us. She is setting up an appointment so that when Katie's schedule clears up, we'll be able to meet with her. We and Kelsey both think that Katie will progress really well.  We taught Greg Jones again this week, and he's doing ok. He expressed to us one of his concerns was that his dad did not take it well at all when his sister was baptized, and so he's worried what will happen if he does so as well. We challenged him to talk to his dad and he said he'll think about it. Hopefully he has the faith and courage to do so. We met with Hassan, a former investigator of the area from Sudan. He is really having a hard time with knowing his family is living in a war-torn country full of genocide. We talked to him about the peace he needs coming only through the gospel, through Jesus Christ. He should be meeting with us more often now.

 

We were able to meet with Josh Buxman, Sister Ballentine's (Peakview Ward) husband. We had invited them a few weeks back to take the missionary lessons, and he said he'd think about it. We talked with him again this time, and he expressed to us his beliefs and how he did not want to be caught up in only one congregation and limit himself. We discussed his beliefs and he held a lot of the same beliefs as we do. It was a great discussion, and we think there's a lot of progress to be made there.

 

Things will be changing pretty soon. A week from now I will be getting a new companion, pretty much for sure. Elder Stanger goes home on August 23rd, and will probably be going to boulder for his last 10 days after the transfer. We will no longer be covering the Peakview Ward after the transfer, and the University Ward will be growing a ton in the next few weeks. Things are going really well here in Greeley!

 

This week, my testimony has been one of love. We were able to watch one of the bible videos for FHE in the Institute, and it was the video of the Sermon on the Mount. What a powerful sermon--there is none like it. It says: "And behold it is written also, that thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy; But behold I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you; that ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good."  I came to a big realization as  I read this scripture. If we don't love our enemies, and find charity for those who don't reciprocate the love, then we aren't living up to be the children of God we were meant to. Charity is a divine Godly attribute, and as children of God, we have been blessed and inherited divine attributes. We are left to dig beneath the natural man and let the dormant divinity within deliver us. We were designed to be full of love, full of charity, and if we do live up to that potential, we are becoming the children of God we were created, meant, and designed to be. We were not sent here to fail, but to find ourselves, to come to ourselves. He loves perfectly, and one day we can too. I love Him, and love being able to be his servant at this point in my life. The Gospel is what will bring true happiness, and true peace. I love it. 

Love,

Elder Logan Bryan

Save me a piece of that corn!

Hey Family! 

How are things going? It sounds like you guys have been ridiculously busy.

 

So first things first, this week was pretty good.  AND I got to be with Elder McKay again for a day!  It was awesome!

 

So most exciting news of the week: Paul! This guy is awesome!  We met with Paul on Tuesday and taught the Plan of Salvation. He loved it and it made a lot of sense to him. He had questions, but he just wanted to know what he needs to do to follow God. We talked about baptism again with him. He asked how soon he would need to be baptized. We told him not tomorrow, but when God gave him an answer that it would be important for him to follow that and act on it. He understood and said, "I don't think it will be long before I'm ready to be baptized"! Then Elder McKay and I were on exchanges on Friday, and we taught Paul again. It was seriously one of the best lessons of my life. We taught part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked about baptism again. He asked some good questions and Elder McKay and I both were able to answer some of them. Then Paul felt like he still wasn't ready. Then I felt prompted to read D&C 20:37, and asked him, "Out of the things that are required for baptism, which of those things do you still feel like you're lacking in?" He said it was humility. That he knew what he needed to do and what God was telling him to do, but he felt like his pride was getting in the way of him following it fully. We then had a great discussion about overcoming weaknesses. He definitely felt the Spirit, and I felt it super strongly. We then went back to baptism. We asked again what he thought about baptism. He said he thought it was something he needed to do. We asked when he thought he would want to. He asked, "Next Sunday?" Wow, what faith! We explained about coming to church 3 times, and he is set to be baptized on August 18th!  It was awesome!  He came to church and was fellowshipped awesomely. It was just an amazing experience.

 

Well everything else is doing really well here in Greeley. Things are going well, and we are seeing a lot of progress and a lot of blessings. I love it so much. I had an amazing realization this week. I came to think about what we need to hear as people, members, missionaries, to best help us become better. I thought of hope and of empowerment. Though some people struggle with pride, I feel like sometimes we don't hear enough how much good we're doing, how important we are, and how much we mean to God, and how much potential we have. Lots of people try to tell us how to improve or what to improve. That is excellent.  But, to instill in someone a love for themselves, a longing to change and look forward to the future, and a humble, grateful heart towards God, is to build in them a knowledge and realization of those things innately. It has changed the way I have looked at being Christlike. He taught us who we were and what we could become, and then asked us to become that way. How great of an example that is. If we can hope, if we can find redeeming, enabling, and empowering strength through the Atonement, we are given the perspective we need to become the person we are supposed to be. I love Christ. He is always reaching out to us. Let us "forsake all and follow him". 

Love,

Elder Logan Bryan

Semana de los Milagros

Well my wonderful, busy family, this week was amazing!

Since being companions with Elder McKay, I've had a strong testimony of tracting.  Now, In over a year I hadn't been able to get in one door during tracting...i.e. nobody let us into their house/apartment when we knocked into them; plenty let us come back another time, but no immediate lessons.  I still love tracting, and if nothing else, it is a sign to the Lord that you're willing to put in the work and effort in order to receive blessings.  He definitely blesses you for it. Well, this week we had a ton of days that were empty and basically had a lot of time to tract.  Yes!  It can be a little discouraging at first, but after a while tracting becomes a blast. We had a lot of time to tract this week, and planned this week to get 4 new investigators.

Well we had one appointment set up with a potential investigator on Wednesday, and that went through.  He's a guy named Greg who is from Akron, CO (it isn't any bigger than it sounds) that has investigated the church before, and I think he'll progress, but it may be slow. We had nothing else set up as far as getting new investigators, but we knew we needed to work hard.  So we tracted.

On Friday, we tracted some apartments near UNC, and the first door that someone answered, a guy named CJ answered the door.  He played football @ UNC, and recently transferred to play at CSU (Ft. Collins), but is still living in Greeley.  He was nice to us, and asked if we could come back in 20 minutes because he had to finish shaving.  We did, and we walked to a quiet part of the apt complex, and we started to get to know him and teach the restoration.  I can honestly say that I know the Spirit was guiding our conversation.  I was led to make analogies that I never had before (football analogies) and I knew that the first vision would have an impact on him and that we needed to talk to him about it.  I was able to recite the first vision, and asked him to focus on how he felt when I did so.  Afterwards I asked him how he felt when we talked about it, and he said sincerely "that's powerful."  He definitely felt the Spirit, and said he feels like he needs guidance in his life, and it was such a tender mercy to be able to talk to him.  Later that night he texted us and said "Appreciate u guys man good words". He's awesome!   

Well, Last night we had two hours planned to tract to finish up the evening.  We did so, and we tracted again at some apartments near UNC.  We had some really good conversations, but nobody let us in or was interested.  It was about 8:40 at night, and it takes about 10-15 minutes to get home, and we decided to tract a few more doors in the basement of the building.  The first door we knocked on in the basement was a guy named Paul.  He was nice to us at the door, and said he was a music performance major at UNC in piano, and we talked to him a little about religion.  He said he had been going to a church near campus for about a month.  Then he stopped, and looked at us and said, "You know I've actually been really curious about the LDS or Mormon religion (I don't know which you prefer), do you guys have a church here?"  We told him there was and he was always welcome to attend.  He said he was interested in learning what we believe, and we told him that's what we do as missionaries, and I then felt impressed to ask him if he had a little time right now to talk.  He said sure and invited us in.  We sat down and he gave us water (because it was burning up) and we talked about the restoration.  He said that it all made sense, and that he felt like it was right.  We told him that feelings of reassurance and comfort are the Holy Ghost, and we invited him to be baptized, and he accepted!  It was an amazing tender mercy from the Lord, again.  It was the last door of the night, on Sunday night, and we were able to touch someone's life and bring them closer to Christ.  We will meet with him again on Tues.

We also got a call from some other Elders in another ward that a girl had interrupted PEC meeting to ask where the University Ward was because she had just moved from CO Springs and had a baptismal date and wants to be baptized! Another tender mercy.

I don't know what to think of all the things that are happening right now.  I am so grateful that the Lord has seen it fit to have these things happen while I'm here.  I don't feel like I've done much for these blessings, but I feel blessed to be a part of them.

Gary should also be baptized this week.  He's doing pretty well.  I'll let you know more next week.

I love my Heavenly Father.  He truly loves us.  There are times when the world in its shame-filled mockery tries to tell us we're nothing, and we're not worth it.  Why do we keep going? Why do we turn to God?  Because He does care.  Why are we of infinite worth to God? Because He, the almighty creator of mountains and meadows--of mighty and miniscule--, created us.  He created you.  He loves  you.  I am so grateful to know that I have a Father in Heaven who truly takes a part and interest in my life.  He cares because I do, and that is peace.  Turn to Him, He is always waiting. 

I love you,

Elder Logan Bryan

Finally out of the Farmhouse!

Well Dear Family,

It's true.  We're finally out of the farmhouse.  I can't believe it.  I'll include pictures.

This week was a really hard week to tell you the truth. The Farm Manager, who manages the farmhouse as well, told us previously that we needed to be out by July 15.  So now we're out, and living with a family named the Hoovers.

Kelsey got baptized!  It was awesome.  She had the Institute Director baptize her (there's a pic of them 2).  And the program was great.  Her nonmember mom came to watch the baptism and is super supportive of Kelsey.  Kelsey's friend from Washington came also.  I was blessed to be able to confirm Kelsey yesterday, and it was just a great experience.  I was so happy for her, and more excited than I have been in a long time.  Baptisms are awesome.  The Spirit guiding the meeting, and also Sunday's meetings were amazing.

Kelsey's Mom, Kelsey, and Friend from Washington

Bishop Coleman, the Institute Director who baptized Kelsey

Elder Stanger, Kelsey, and Me

Gary is doing ok, we think. We weren't able to meet with him again this week. But, we're meeting with him on Wednesday, so we'll figure things out.  I think he should still be set to be baptized at the end of the month.  He's a great guy, but he has had a hard time lately.  I am so glad that he has been able to find the gospel. We should have a lot more to report this next week. We've gotten several referrals that should pan out.

I'm sorry that this is mostly just informational but I'll take the chance to leave part of my testimony.  I know Jesus Christ is real. He lives.  I have felt the enabling and cleansing power of the atonement.  It is so real.  It is so infinitely reaching and powerful.  If you're hurt, or alone, or broken, or lost, He is the answer.  Stop searching elsewhere. There is no lasting and true happiness except through Jesus Christ and His Gospel.  I love Him.

Love,
Elder Logan Bryan

Me in the Cornfield across the Farmhouse

Almost getting hit by a Semi!