Last Letter

I had a wonderful week this past week. There were all sorts of  highs and lows, but the prevalent feeling is of strength, peace, and excitement to be where I am when I am. I love the Gospel at a whole new level. I love my Heavenly Father. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and I love the time I have been able to dedicate to all three. Yesterday I felt the spirit more frequently and stronger that I think I can remember.

 

See you in a few

 

Lots of Love!

We had a wonderful week in many ways.

My highlights/things on my mind:

-We had an awesome training on Thursday. The only downside was that it was seven hours long aaaaaahghrhrghgh, so long, kill me. But I learned so much and made all sorts of strides of improvement, so it was worth it. We learned a lot about the Book of Mormon, and we're reminded of its role and had a wonderful, enthralling talk about... Planning. It was wonderful, for real changed my life.

-One of these past days, I don't remember which, we stopped a women walking her dog and asked if we could just share with her a card and we were able to start a wonderful conversation about all sorts of things which ended in the first vision. Vivian is 28, black, with deep roots from Arlington. It was one of the most satisfying conversations I have had in a long time.

-I really want to continue to talk to many people like Vivian, and anyone else who God will put in our path. We have made a large effort to talk to everyone, Hispanic or not, everywhere we go over the past while in my mission and I don't think anything has been more rewarding. Reaching out! It always makes me feel good

Something I read recently in Alma hit me today that says something along the lines of "compassion moved them to act"(it was in Spanish so I am paraphrasing); compassion, charity, and love are the absolutely most enduring motivators and energizers. I love what I do and I continue to try and love who I am. I want love to motivate me to do most everything I do in my life.

I love you!

Elder Bigelow 

With my Mission President:

I love being a missionary!

 

Highlights of missionary love this week.

 

-We had just finished making all the calls that had confirmed that all our hopes for appointments  had fallen through (again, its okay, the story gets better). So we said a little prayer asking for some help from the Big Man as usual. We thought about it considered our options and then decided to go check on a guy who we had set up an appointment with for previous week which had fallen through. We had a great conversation about language and its interactions with our lives. We were going to have a lesson about the language of the spirit, but that fell through. We weren't sure about his address but we knew which row of buildings it was in so we started buzzing all the "b's" and "d's" because that is what we thought he had told us. As we were finishing buzzing the apartments and talking to a few people in the street who comes out? Luis. Lookin good and smelling better. He was on his way to a party but saw us and said, "Hey, que estan haciendo por aqui?" We told him, looking for You! We had a nice little chat and set up another appointment up for tonight. I will tell you how it goes next week.

-I am officially out of an ipad. It was taken away last Thursday and I am being a real missionary with paper scriptures until I depart. It is weird to go back after being so used to studying on the ipad. It makes things so much faster and more convenient. I will have a phone when I get home, so I only have to endure for a little w hile. The good news is that in reality I prefer the actually reading in a real book.

 

-We have been talking to a lot of english people and it is a wonderful new experience and challenge. There are a ton of americans in most of our area and very few hispanics so we have been trying to reach out to them a lot more while we are en route to find our Hispanic friends. It is something that in all honesty gave me fear at the beginning and throughout much of my mission but now it is something I love. Talking to your own people, even if they are often losers is extra gratifying in a way.

 

-We also had the opportunity to go to the sealing of Brandon and Daphnee. They are some of our best friends and we were pumped they finally went to the temple. Brandon was baptized right before I started my mission. He and Daphnee received their endowments last week and sealed on saturday. I have been buggin them about it since the day I met them! They are some of the best friends I have made.

 

I have been thinking a lot about Romans 8 this week. Specifically verse 16 but also the rest of the chapter. It has caused me to repent often. I more frequently evaluate where my standing is and how I can feel better about myself. Kick the carnals butt! Become something better

 

I have to roll. I love you lots!

Week of March 9

These week was a great one, lots of little miracles, lots of tender
mercies and Tons of hard work (lots of doors and lots of talking).

I am trying to think of the things that I want to do and feel and see
over the last little time I have left to be a missionary. I think I
have decided that what I want more than anything is to forget I am in
Virginia, see every person for who they really are and try to speak,
and help them. A phrase that my companion and I strive for sometimes
is "forget you are in Virginia."

That is what I want to do with the time I have left. I want to forget
I am in Virginia. I don't want to wind down to the finishing days of
my time here. I want to continue progressing and come home with the
ability to come home running.

I don't have to many words today but I will tell you I am grateful for
my personal testimony, and I am glad I live what I live because of my
own conviction.-- We met a lady the other day and had a tremendously
interesting discussion with her. I think she belonged to a Unitarian
Universalist  Congregation or something like that. (I finally
understand what dad said one time, saying, "They believe in God, sort
of...) She said she chose her view of God and religion totally based
on the social effects on humanity and the good it cause in her life.
Because of that and in part, how she was raised, she now identifies
with Christianity most closely. She doesn't however believe in the
divinity of Jesus Christ or anything like that. Interesting.

I was confused, and obviously I have respect for everyone, their
beliefs and how they got there because everyone has had a different
life experience. Regardless, I am very grateful that I do what I do
because of my personal experience and my conviction in respect to Gods
relationship and communication with me. I love God, I love what the
Gospel has done for my life and I intend to use it to get the most out
of life that I can over the rest of my time on this here little
planet.

See you!

Lots of Love!

Love//

Elder Bigelow

ps. We went to cafe rio today and saw 9 Mormons under one hour. BUMPIN'

Here is another photo of us before another day long excursion into the
foot of snow that fell over a few hours. It was Heavy stuff.

This week has been great; it has flown by like I can't believe. It
just gets faster and faster.

The biggest thing that has grown as of late is my faith, I think. By that
I mean my willingness to do what I know I need to. It has happened
because of an increase of love for the people in our area and the
wonderful experiences I have had as we reach out further and further
to try and help people grow themselves.  Saturday was particularly
interesting...

We planned out our day the night before as we always do, trying to
confirm things, figuring out what to study etc etc. We felt good about
what we had planned and we were ready to get going the next morning.

As we were going on with our day we visited a few people and talked to
some people on the street. Everything was falling through and we both
felt a gentle inkling to go to Fairfax which is a little ways away, so
we baiedl on our plans in early afternoon, seeing as we had no
appointments later on.

We went and checked around every corner for Hispanics in apartments in
our potentials list and we were having no luck. (IT WAS SO COLD). We
skipped dinner to keep going and we could not find anyone who was home
or even mildly interested. After talking to everyone and running to and fro
trying to be productive and efficient we decided to try one last house
because it was about 30 mins to get home if you're lucky and we had
little time left.

We pulled up to the home and it was pitch dark. We said a prayer
anyway and as we looked up Elder Rascon said, "I think I know why we
are here..." He had a light in his eye as he pointed literally over a
river and through a small wood to a house about a hundred yards away.
The family was hustling to bring groceries back from their car. He
mentioned he had spoken with them before about a month and a half ago.
They are friends of a neighbor who introduced them. I said, alright
let's go.

On our way over, excitement was building and the possibility of
teaching a beautiful family ran through my head. I have come to rely
on miracles for our success, while always searching for them. --We got
there and knocked, he answered, we went in and had a wonderful
conversation. It seemed but a moment but took about a half an hour. We
didn't have "a lesson" but we had a good talk. It seemed to influence
him a lot as well as all his daughters we were able to speak to for a
minute. Then we left.

It is interesting how simple and small things can create large change
in the future. It is like that one "a few degrees" talk by president
Ucthdorf. I am so happy we followed our feelings, nothing is more
gratifying.

Follow your gut! (aka probably, maybe the spirit if it is a good thing
you feel you should do)

Love//

Elder Bigelow

Feb 23--Last Transfer

Heyo!

This is my new second half. He is number one. I LOVE HIM TO DEATH. I am finishing training him, which means when I am ready to go home he will be ready to go off on his own. He has been here for 7 weeks. We are seriously both on such the same page it is unreal. We are both 83637489% committed and have seen some tremendous miracles.

 Because of a lot of cleaning to be done and another really bad haircut I am running low on time so I will give you just one story.

 --It was a hectic night and we had not had time to re-plan for the night because things had shifted around and fallen through. Visiting our "prospective elder" list was on the schedule but we had not had time earlier to select the people. We said a prayer and E.R. started to choose which ones he though looked good. We checked the info on five and they all lived outside our area, we found one finally that was in Reston and we went. We got there, said another prayer asking for guidance and a miracle. We went on knocked on the door a few times with no answer. we started to walk back and President Riggs' voice came into my head saying, "God sent you there for a reason, always knock around," so we turned around. We see a house that looked possibly Hispanic, so we knocked it. A guy opened up and said, "oh hey guys, come in, it's really cold." We were taken aback, but even more when he said he is a member, fell away a while ago but knows he needs to come back. His kid is 8 and wants to go to church and he is living with his new girlfriend. We really want to help him out and he says he is ready to come back.

Elder Rascon and I have contemplated direction from the spirit a lot. When we live worthily and are working are tails off, and then are willing to follow our feelings magic happens every time. I am so glad I have recognized that.

Have a great week! I love you all!

Love//

Elder Bigelow

Here is our district-- both sides of us

Week of Feb 16--Cold

I am on the metro riding into tysons to get picked up to go to the
temple today. We are going to do baptisms for the dead with some
recent converts of ours over the past little while. Hopefully we will
be able to get some good pictures. It will be cool to go and do the
baptisms for the dead, I have not done them for a loooong time. It
will be even cooler to go there for the first time with some of our
friends who have recently been baptized.

This week has been a good one. Most of my high moments were connected
to the spirit being recognized in retrospect, seeing it work in others,
or having directly touch me.

First thing. I was on exchanges for the day with Elder Jared Oran,
whom you know. He asked me to prepare and share with him a little
about following the spirit all the time. I was finally able to
recognize and understand all the times that I have been guided by the
spirit in my mission and how often the spirit actually did guide me
before my mission in various circumstances. It was cool to make that
connection and be able to apply how I will be able use that same
direction in my life when I will be home.

I was able to go back to a previous Ward to participate in the baptism
of two HOMIES: Sonia and Miguel. I baptized Miguel and that was cool,
but the really great thing was that after he came out of the water and
we were changing he said. "I felt something really different when I
came out of the water. I felt really good and could only think about
Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I think it was the spirit." Elder
Clark and I said, yeah it was! That was pretty cool.

Last thing. During sacrament meeting a family we have recently started
visiting who has been totally inactive for a year or two came and was
happy to be there. The whole family came, even the crazy kids. I sat
with them and tried to help tame the kids so they could get through
sacrament meeting. As I was talking with them another family who has
been inactive for the past two years came and sat down on my other
side. I was really excited for them. During the sacrament I felt
something special. That was cool. It definitely was just as satisfying
to help them get there back in the game as helping someone be
baptized.


Moral of the story--
I am glad I can recognize the spirit.

1 John 1:7
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us
from all sin.

I like that, and I can feel it


Love//


Elder Bigelow

Ps. Waiting in the metro today was COLD. It was 10 degrees and windy
everyone was dying, especially that girl in the far right.