New Comp

Well I have a new companion. His name is Elder Measel and he's from Detroit. He's also a ginger, which is kind of fun. We've got a lot of work to do this transfer and I'm excited to see how the busyness is going to help him adjust to the life of a missionary. This week has been pretty slow, it's kinda hard to keep things going with the adjustment of having one companion leave and a new one come in. Oh yeah, I'm training Elder Measel, he's a brand new missionary. So yea, It's going to be a good couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to seeing how our work goes.

I can't really think of anything else super exciting that happened haha missionary work is hard work, and it's so rewarding but also stressful and it lowkey starts to get kind of monotonous haha I hope you all are doing well. 

Love you all

Elder Bond

1: our zone last week. After transfers it's way different now haha

2: doin service

3: the newbie, Elder Measel

4: The Crew

Transfers

What's up my peeps. It has been the craziest week. All of our investigators are progressing so well, and we're looking forward to having a lot of success. 

Last monday evening we had a visit with some of the members in the Beaver Creek ward and they invited some of their friends named Joe and Lori who aren't members but have been going to church for over five years now. I guess they had a bad experience a couple years ago with some missionaries and so they kept coming to church but didn't want to meet with missionaries anymore. After that visit we were able to set up an appointment with them and then those same members came with us to the lesson. Not gonna lie, it was by far the worst lesson we've ever had. We planned to just teach about the Restoration but we didn't communicate well enough with the members and it was just a confusing jumble of a lesson. I can't even begin to explain how bad it was haha we only said like four words the entire time, the rest of the time was the members just rambling. But then somehow we managed to have enough the Spirit there that Joe committed to a baptismal date! It was so tight haha.

Then we had a lesson with Bob and Cheryl. Cheryl is seriously golden. We just felt prompted to read through 3 Nephi chapters 11 and 17 with them. All of our lessons with them are usually around an hour and a half hahaha Cheryl texted us the other day and said "I believe absolutely that the Book of Mormon is the anointed word of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" and holy cow we were stoked haha it was tight

We also got our transfer news. Elder Anderson will be leaving and I'll be staying here in the same area and I'll be training a new missionary. I'm looking forward to it haha he's going to have a good time in this area

I've been studying repentance a lot and I want to share some it with y'all. Growing up it's really easy to just think of repentance as just "oh i did something wrong. I better confess and try not to do it again." But it's so much more than that. I could talk forever about what I've learned, but instead I figure I'll just send some of the scriptures that helped me understand it better and leave it up to you guys to learn for yourselves. 

So I'll send these scriptures in the order I studied them and the way that made most sense to me.

Mosiah 24:12-15

Alma 37:43-46

2 Nephi 31:10

John 14:15

Helaman 5:11-12

Helaman 15:7-8

D&C 19:23-24

Moroni 8:25-26

3 Nephi 11:10-11,14

Alma 7:11-16, 27

2 Nephi 31:13

John 14:26-27

2 Nephi 31:15,19-20

Also check out Romans 5:1-11, it's an awesome chapter that kind of sums it all up as well.

Jesus Christ loves us so perfectly. He is perfect, and everything he has ever done is centered around giving us an example of how to live and an avenue by which we can truly come closer to Him and allow His grace into our lives.

I love you all, stay lit

Elder Bond

My Peeps

So I figured I'd just send out a little email and let you guys all know about our progressing investigators are and who we're working with. I'll separate them by ward for viewing convenience :)

QUATAMA

First of all we have Susie and Norm Nordby. They're an older couple who are both remarried and have three kids, one of which is theirs, and a couple young grandkids. They've been being taught for almost five months now, and we do yardwork for them for an hour before every lesson which means that we've only had one or two lessons with them in our normal dress clothes haha but we've basically completely redone their yard, which is pretty lit. Susie grew up Catholic but didn't like anything about it, switched to a non demonational christian church and was baptized almost 20 years ago and has been going since. She has an extremely strong testimony and faith in Jesus Christ, and her husband Norm isn't quite as involved in church but is so unimaginably supportive. They both have some pretty severe health problems, Norm has had multiple strokes in the past couple years and as a result is in the hospital every couple of weeks. Susie has two stints in her heart and has lots of skin problems and is actually getting an angio gram today to see if she needs another one. We gave her a Priesthood blessing last night to calm her mind and bless her body to function more fully, so we're hoping things go well for her. We've invited them to be baptized and they both said they want to but neither of them have commited to a date yet. She says she's excited to join the church and she understand the need for Priesthood Authority and has a strong testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and she doesn't have any doctrinal concerns, her only issue is that she loves the people at the church she's been going to and doesn't want to leave them quite yet. It's a long process, but we love working with her.

Next we have Michael and Robin Rosa. They're actually my miracle investigators. A couple weeks ago I was having a rough time and I was doing my best to have more faith. We had set a goal as a companionship to talk to EVERYONE we saw. One day we were walking to our car after an appointment and it was pouring rain and we saw these two people like legit a quarter mile away down the street and I just looked at Elder ANderson and said "goals?" and so we walked all the way to them in the rain and we started talking and they started to say they weren't interested and I just went off and explained why we were out teaching people and our desire to teach them about Christ and bore testimony to them and they were just like, sure. Please come back. Michael says I look like Matt Damon so they both call me Matt haha we've had a couple lessons with them and I just connect with them sooo well. Michael has had a pretty rough life. He's been to prison multiple times and he is legit covered in scars from stab wounds and gunshots. He's studied religion a ton and has tattoos that represent each of the three main branches of religion (judaism, islam, and christianity) but as we've taught him about what true faith is and borne testimony to him he's truly softened his heart and they are both so sincerely searching. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he's already marked up the couple chapters we've suggested to him. The only problem is that we're convinved Satan is trying to kill him. We had a lesson with him the other day and then he had seven seizures that night and then went into a coma and is now in the hospital. It kind of sucks. We pray for him so hard and I'd appreciate it if y'all could pray for him as well.

BEAVER CREEK

Bob and Cheryl Dorton. Man they're tight. So Bob is actually a referal from some other missionaries. But he is GOLDEN. The first time we met him he was like "I've got some pretty weird beliefs. You guys might think I'm pretty strange and not want to meet with me, but just bear with me" and then he legit straight up explained the entire Plan of Salvation haha it was so tight. He used to be a part of a biker gang and then worked heavy machinery and had a pretty bad accident and almost lost one of his feet, took a few years off and now has started his own excavation/grading company. He is LOADED. He has a huge lifted F-350, his wife drives a Range Rover, he has mulitple banshees, the nicest dog I've ever seen in my life (her name is Bella and she really likes me haha) and he's just tight. He's been reading through the Book of Mormon and said he loves it so far. His wife Cheryl works for the state and is extremely busy but we were able to meet with her for the first time this last friday and she is so tight. She grew up kind of hopping between different organized religionsl and never found one she felt comfortable or confident with. She still stayed religious and actually toured with different gospel choirs and played piano/organ all over the country. She has hundreds of passages from the bible memorized and is unbelievably spiritually aware. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and I think we did a good job of it. The SPirit was extremely strong as we taught and testified and she said she'd read it that day. She also unfortunately got pretty sick and wasnt able to come to church this week. They're both extremely promising though.

Last but not least, Tiffany. So we felt prompted to go stop by this family a couple of weeks ago and as we were walking down the street we saw this lady smoking on her porch and she did NOT look like she was in a good spot. We went up and talked to her and she was just like "normally I'd be swearing and yelling at you guys but I actually do need to talk to you right now. And so we went out to the curb and talked for a solid hour. She's lost her mom, brother, and husband within the past couple of years. Her husband died and then when her brother died she adopted his two kids, so now she has six kids and is dating this new guy and he's kind of a character. I'm personally not a huge fan of him and he's kind of holding her back in her progression, but we're doing our best. But she is so sincerely searching for God right now and I know that she will find Him. We've only been able to meet with her a coupple of times becuase of how much she has going on, but her son Eathyn (weird spelling, I know) has been coming to mutual activites and to our youth sports night and it's making a big differene in their entire family.

We have a couple other new investigators as well as a huge list of people we've met who've said they want to meet but those are our progressing investigators right now. I love them all, and I always look forward to meeting with them

Hitting the Grind

Hey everyone, it's still lit in Hillsboro. It's been a pretty slow couple of weeks, our investigators are all progressing well and we've been busy as ever. It's been good.

Elder Anderson crashed our car into a pole a couple of weeks ago (we're both fine, it just messed up one of the doors) and we're finally getting around to getting that fixed this week so we're going to be on bikes for the week, so that'll be fun. We are actually kind of excited haha whenever we go out on foot instead of driving we always meet WAY more people and we've been needing to meet some more peeps.

Easter Sunday was awesome. We had the chance to listen to General Conference which was amazing, It makes such a difference to know that we have a Prophet on the earth today who literally speaks the will of God to us. I've found peace and comfort as I've prayed for a personal witness that he is indeed a true and living prophet, and I've received it for sure. Hearing the talks and the direction from the prophets and apostles was such a blessing, and I'll be referencing my notes for months to come haha

Being on a mission is so hard, but I'm continuing to learn how to find little things to get me through hard days and how to forget myself to make it so the days aren't as hard. There are so many things that happen and that I can do that make all the diffference I need when I'm struggling. Me and one of the other missionaries from a differen area are starting a hot wheel collection (mine is way cooler). We played some football with one of our investigator's sons and it made his day and meant the world to her (she says he needs more postive male role models in his life). We go and do yardwork for another one of our investigators a couple times a week and she said she'd love to adopt us as her grandsons haha hearing her joy from our service and being able to teach her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ is such a blessing. Just being able to help others is the whole reason I'm out here. I have been called to serve as a representative of Jesus Christ. A big part of that is teaching others about His gopsel and inviting them to Come unto Him. But an even bigger part of that is simply serving others and bringing them peace and direction, just as He would have done. Ironically, doing that makes it even easier to find people to teach haha spreading the good word involves LIVING the good word. I hope that my experiences are things that can help you in your day to day life. Do something for someone else, no matter how small. I made a burrito for Elder Anderson the other day and he said it helped him tons haha it doesn't have to be extraordinary to make an extraordinary difference.

Be yourself. Love others. It's lit.

I love you all.

Elder Bond

Members Coming in Clutch

Well sorry it's been a couple weeks but it's been lit as ever. It was my birthday last sunday and the members hardcore hooked me up haha we went to a couple different appointments with members in our wards and every single one of them made us a dessert and then gave us food haha I'll attach a picture of our haul for the night. Thanks to all of you that wrote and wished me a happy birthday.
It's been an unusual couple of weeks. Elder Anderson has had a lot going on, so we've spent a lot of time between different meetings and things of that nature. It's been hard, but it's been helping him so it's all good.
We had a couple pretty cool miracles. We were in this neighborhood the other day and felt this prompting to just walk down this street. There were a couple members on this street but we had no idea what to do, but we just walked down the street. A couple houses down there was this lady outside smoking. We talked to her for a minute and introduced ourselves and she just stopped us and said "I need to talk to you, just not around my kids" so we went and sat on the curb on the other side of her house and talked. She opened up about everything she has had going on. She told us that her mom died of cancer, her husband was killed in a car crash and then her brother was stabbed to death all within of a couple years of each other. So she adopted her brothers two kids and now has 6 kids in her home. She just barely got remarried so she's doing a bit better, but she said that she didn't believe in God anymore and wanted to just completely forget about him but that she knew he existed because she couldn't have been so angry at something that didn't exist. It broke our hearts, and we ended up talking with her for almost an hour. We've had a couple lessons with her and she is the definition of humble. She said that normally if missionaries came by she'd be swearing at them and yelling at them to go away but that she knew that she needed God back in her life. It's always really special when we get to meet with her and her kids.
Another night we went to go stop by a guy we had met on the street. He didn't answer but we felt prompted to stop by a former investigator who lived in the same complex. She opened the door and was super frazzled haha we talked a bit and she told us that her boyfriend had just gotten arrested and that she had been feeling for awhile that she needed to kick him out. She's in her 40s and he's in her 20's and he's not exactly the greatest kind of guy. We normally don't do this, but we felt prompted to give her a priesthood blessing. We gave her a super simple but powerful blessing. It was actually kind of weird, when we were talking with her her dog was barking just because he was trying to protect her but as soon as we started giving the blessing the dog immediately stopped but then her boyfriends cat started going beserk. There was definitely some bad juju about that guy. But it was a very powerful blessing and then afterwards we looked at her and just invited her to be baptized on the spot and said yes! It was so cool, and she's definitely prepared to bring Christ back into her life.
Last night we were on a little split with the Zone Leaders because one of them had to go to a baptism so the other one came and worked in our area. Our district leader called us and asked about something and then jokingly asked if we had any referrals for him. We didn't, but we promised him we'd get one within a couple hours. So we just went out and talked to people on the street and knocked on some doors and we saw these two high school kids out walking so we stopped them and they were HIGH. It was impressive haha so we just talked with them and joked around and took a selfie with them and we actually set a return appointment with them and then when we asked for their address we found out that they lived in our district leaders area, so that was his referral haha it was cool
It's been lit out here as always. I miss home but i love being out and serving others and helping the people in our area. I love you all. Stay lit
Elder Bond

Pics:

1-3: Birthday in the field was cool

4: Our new District Leader Elder Hill. He's tight

5: A cool car

6: A cool tree

7: Nick and Ollie, those two high kids

,

First Transfer Down

This week hasn't been anything too crazy. The first couple of days were pretty rough just because we had a TON going on and we were struggling to kinda get into a rhythm and work together and make it all happen, but it got better.

I mentioned a man named Bob in my email last week and we committed him to baptism! He's way cool, and as we've taught him it hasn't been as much teaching at has been just helping him realize that everything he already believes is truth haha we're stoked for that. His baptism is slated for the 24th of March but it will most likely be pushed back a week or two.

So transfers are this week. Basically for those of you that don't know, there are different areas within each mission where we go and serve and every 6 weeks our mission President shuffles some of the missionaries around. It's just a way to make sure missionaries don't get too comfortable in certain areas, and it keeps the areas fresh in a way. So I'll be staying in this same area (Hillsboro) for the next 6 weeks, which I'm excited for. I love this area.

One of the managers for our apartment complex is super awesome and bought us lunch at this restaurant called Mazatlan. It was super good, and we were super grateful. She says she's our Mexican momma haha she's way cool.

My birthday is next sunday and so I got a cake mix in the mail (sorry family, I didn't want until my bday to open my presents haha) and so for our Zone activity today I made the cake and brought it. That was a hit haha

All in all, the work is still going on. I've been humbled in a lot of ways this week, but I've recognized that with humility comes power. As I've learned very clearly, I am in no way capable of performing this work on my own. I cannot do it without Jesus Christ. He is the man. He is my rock, a rock that I know if I will build on I will not fail. I am so grateful for Him. For His life and His teachings and the sacrifice He has made for me and for all of us. Through Him and His grace I am made strong, and I know that each of you can be made strong as well if you will do your best to humble yourself and fully rely on Him. Prayer is a beautiful thing, and it gives us the opportunity to confess our gratitude, our weakness, our needs to our God, our Heavenly Father. In the words of a man named James E Talmage, who wrote the book "Jesus the Christ", he says "It is well to know that prayer is not compounded of words, words that may fail to express what one desires to say, words that so often cloak inconsistencies, words that may have no deeper source than the physical organs of speech, words that may be spoken to impress mortal ears. The dumb may pray, and that too with the eloquence that prevails in heaven. Prayer is made up of heart throbs and the righteous yearnings of the soul, of supplication based on the realization of need, of contrition and pure desire. If there lives a man who has never really prayed, that man is a being apart from the order of the divine in human nature, a stranger in the family of God’s children. Prayer is for the uplifting of the suppliant. God without our prayers would be God; but we without prayer cannot be admitted to the kingdom of God. So did Christ instruct: 'your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.'" I read that yesterday and felt a humility and a dependency on my God and my Savior unlike anything I've ever felt before. And as I prayed, I was blessed with yet another confirmation that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live, and love me too. They have a work for me to do, and that work is here in Oregon, in leaving my family for two years in full service and dedication to Them. To sum it all up, do not ever forget to pray.

And also, it's lit.

I love you all, keep being awesome

Elder Bond

1. We got a new couch from a member. It's pretty dang nice haha

2. Yesenia, our Mexican momma

3. A cool bridge, featuring some even cooler books (The Book of Mormon)

4. One of my favorite pictures of Jesus Christ. It's almost as if he's saying "I'm waiting for you to follow Me. You know I'm right here. Just come follow Me.”

5. This is my little study space. Lots of cool experiences have happened at this very desk. 

What a Week

This week has been insane.

Tuesday was a pretty normal day. We did some service and had a couple lessons.

Wednesday though. What a day. We got to go to the temple which was amazing. The Portland temple is soo beautiful. Almost as nice as the Gilbert temple ;) But we went through and Elder Anderson ditched out pretty early. He's had a lot on his plate, and he's been thinking about going home. But he left the temple and called his mom and said he wanted to come home, but didn't tell any of us until we were in the car and we had just dropped off the other elders we had with us and he turns to me and says "Elder Bond, I've decided I'm going home." It was a surprise and a half. I knew he had been struggling, but I never thought he would decide to go home. It was a long, crazy, pretty hard day but after a lot of talking with him and praying and giving him a Priesthood blessing and counseling with some of our leadership he decided he was going to stay. It's a really long, crazy story but I figure I'll leave it at that for you guys haha but guys. God listens to our prayers, and He is perfectly aware of us in every moment and Elder Anderson and I saw that firsthand as we figured out what he was going to do. I'm definitely glad he's staying, but let me tell you as much as I love him he can definitely be a handful. And I mean that in the best way. I've learned a ton about forgetting about myself and focusing on others and what they're going through. I've gotten a lot better at being aware of others and paying attention to them and knowing what they might need. I've learned a lot with Elder Anderson, and I really do love him. And yeah, that was that haha.

Thursday was my one month mark in the field (it feels really weird to think about that. It's flying by). We only had one or two appointments that afternoon so we had a lot of time to be out talking to people and teaching them. In around two hours we talked to probably 20-25 people and taught them all and gave 8 of them a copy of the Book of Mormon and scheduled follow up visits with three of them. It was soo good. There was this lady named Lisa we met that was super cool. We were walking and she was on rollerskates going the opposite way and so we just said hi as she rolled by and she didn't say anything, but then we heard a noise and we turned around and she had fallen! She didn't move for a couple seconds which freaked us out, but we ran over and helped her up and got to talking and ended up talking for like 15-20 minutes. She's Lutheran and very politely but clearly said she wasn't interested in changing that, which was fine because we can still teach about Jesus Christ ;) We talked more and got to know her and we did eventually turn the conversation back to religion and the Gospel and I just felt this prompting to be bold with her. I just started talking and started quoting sections from the Book of Mormon to her and I said some really bold things that I wouldn't have normally said to someone on the street, and afterwards she said she'd take a copy of the Book of Mormon to read and asked for our number and we set up a time to go and meet with her again. I know that that was the Holy Ghost filling my mouth with the words Lisa needed to hear. It was super cool.

On Friday Elder Anderson had a doctors appointment in another city that's a ways away, which took a big chunk of our day but we were able to go out and meet with some more people. We met this kid named Alex. He's super cool, and we had another lesson with him yesterday.

Saturday we did a good amount of service, which is always good. Then we met with this guy named Bob. Bob is one of a kind. He's like 6' 6" and super muscular and he has this super long ponytail and broken teeth and really rough skin. He has this huge dog and tiki masks and swords on his walls and three or four motorcycles and fourwheelers and guns and tools and a huge truck in his garage. He's basically super cool. We met him for the first time on Friday and we had a lesson with him on Saturday and it went so well. He already knows a lot, and we just kinda helped him understand more and fit some of the things he already knows together into a more complete whole. He's kept up on every commitment we left with him, and he came to church with us on Sunday and totally loved it. He's just a really cool guy and I genuinely enjoy talking with him and getting to know him, and I'm stoked to see him learn more about the Gospel and his relationship with Jesus Christ. You'll be hearing more about Bob in the future haha

All in all I'm seriously loving my mission. It's hard, but I'm becoming stronger. As I pray and study I can literally feel my Heavenly Father blessing me with what I stand in need of. Jesus Christ is becoming my closest friend. As i learn more about him and try my best to apply his teachings to real life I feel this confidence and this peace that I can't really explain. Jesus Christ is the man. I know He lived, and I know He still lives and loves each of us perfectly and without end. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the restored church that contains the fulness of His gospel, and that through Him and by Him we can return to be with our families in our Heavenly Father's presence forever. I love my family, and I love this Gospel. I hope you all are doing well, keep being great. 

Love,

Elder Bond

1. Our zone at the temple

2. Me, Elder Petersen, Elder Anderson (my comp), and Elder Hoffart. I love those guys.

3. One of my favorite parks in the area. We always meet tons of people here

4. We made this little block wall and planted these flowers for one of our investigators named Susie around her favorite tree. She's pretty old but basically the ultimate grandma, (besides my grandma. Love you Grandma Jo😁)

5. One of our members used to be a professional drag racer and has this in his garage. He's pretty tight.