December 26, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! I hope you all had an amazing Christmas yesterday. I really enjoyed mine because I got to talk to my family again. Crazy part is that was my last time before going home, not to get trunky or anything, haha. Even more crazy than Christmas was Christmas Eve. In the Hispanic culture, Christmas Eve is the big huge celebration rather than Christmas Day. Everyone stays up late with their families until about midnight. Right at midnight is when all the kids are allowed to open their presents. Of course we weren't able to stay out that late but it was still fun to hang out with members until we did have to go home.

Right after church on Christmas!

Baptism of Mireya on Christmas Eve

I loved how Christmas was on Sunday this year. What better way to celebrate Christmas? Sacrament meeting was super special because all we did was read some scriptures about the Savior’s birth and sing Christmas hymns.

Also, WE HAD A BAPTISM! On Christmas Eve! And I had the privilege of baptizing her. She isn't our investigator, she is being taught by the Hermanas but we still have done quite a bit of work with her to help out. Another awesome thing about this baptism is that at the beginning of the year the mission set a goal to baptize 300 people. And I baptized the 300th person on Christmas Eve! I think that is just so awesome and so special. I've never been to a baptism on Christmas Eve but what better gift to get on Christmas than the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Last, but certainly not least; In fact definitely not least, but probably the most important thing. Saving the best for last! Last night we had a conference call with our mission president where he informed us as a mission that we accomplished our goal of 300 baptisms, but then he dropped a bomb shell on us. This upcoming January, so next month, we will be having another General Authority visit. It will be from Elder Gong of the Presidency of the Seventy, but he wanted to bring some others with him too. So it turns out that Elder Ronald A Rasband and Elder M Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will BOTH be coming to our mission to visit. Like this is crazy news! In two years of serving a mission here I have never had an apostle visit. Heck, I've never even met an apostle in my life! And two of them are going to be coming next month! This is so awesome and the whole mission is freaking out right now! Haha, so I'm super excited and it'll definitely be an awesome thing to experience.

So that's it for this week. Awesome news and a great Christmas. Also, I'm going to be going to DC today with some other good buddies in the mission. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and see if I can send them today.
Love you all and have an amazing week!
Elder Biehn

December 19, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey everyone!

Fire alarm in the middle of studies!

This has been a very strange week for me, including this morning. We had the fire alarm go off right in the middle of studies. So we all had to go outside and it wasn't fun considering it was like 30 degrees. To say the least, we weren't too happy.

BUT it was a pretty fun week. We had our Ward Christmas party on Friday and then a Charla Fogonera (fireside) yesterday. I enjoyed the Ward party because of course they had good food there, but then also it was a good chance to talk with the members. We had a lot of the less actives that we are working with show up to it along with one of our investigators, so that was super awesome. We also had Santa there but I forgot to take a picture with him.  Sorry!

As for the Charla, it was ok. There weren't a ton of people there but what was good is that I got to go and we had our investigators go as well. What was also nice was that this is Elder Justesen's last Charla because he goes home in less than two weeks. So it was good to see him again before he heads out.

Last but certainly not least, I had the opportunity to interview one of the investigators of the Hermanas in my district for baptism. She passed and what's awesome is that she is going to be getting baptized on the 24th, Christmas Eve! And even more awesome is that she asked me to baptize her! So we are going to be having a white Christmas! (It doesn't look like it's going to snow before Christmas but that's ok, this is SOOO much better!)

Love you guys and I'll talk to you next week! And MERRY CHRISTMAS! I'm looking forward to being able to talk to my family this Sunday. It'll be the last time on my mission! Crazy how fast it's gone by.

From,

Elder Biehn

December 13, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey everybody!

Crazy busy day yesterday. Elder Bennett from the seventy came to visit our mission and so we had a half mission conference yesterday. Man, this training lasted FOREVER. We got to the chapel at 9:30 and we didn't get back to our apartment until 6! It was so long and kinda rough because Elder Bennett is known for how much he chastises missions. Ours wasn't as bad because we've been doing good but he made sure to call us out on what we weren't doing right.

Running the camera at the Mt Vernon Christmas Festival

Anyways, in brighter news we also had interviews with president this week. Interviews are always nice because it gives you a chance just to talk to president so that way he sees how you are doing.

Then we also participated in a Christmas festival for the MT Vernon area. We all (as in the missionaries in the stake) sang Joy to the World. It was pretty fun considering we only had about 30 minutes to rehearse and we all know that my singing abilities are... well I just don't have any. But it was fun none the less! Then afterwards we got to control the camera for the rest of the show! That's what I enjoy doing for sure!

Yahhh! A Christmas tree!

Another good thing that happened. We got a little present from one of our less actives that we are working with. She was cleaning out her apartment and decided to give us this!

I was so happy!!! Like you have no idea. I didn't have a Christmas tree last year and being able to have one for this year made everything so much better and give me more of that Christmas season feeling.

A cool city scape

We were also doing some tracting and found a cool city scape. :)

Well, that's about it for this week. Just a little bit more before Christmas! I'm so excited and I hope everyone is remembering the true meaning of Christmas and doing the #LightTheWorld.

Love yah!

Elder Biehn

December 12, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update Postponed

Hey I have to change my P-Day to Tuesday because we are having a training. I'll be able to write then.

Elder Biehn

December 5, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

 Hey guys!

There's not too much to report on for this week. Nothing insanely crazy happened, it was just a normal week of working and finding and teaching. Something cool though was that my birthday was last Monday but Tuesday was awesome! We had a fun little district meeting and my companion made me a cake. It was pretty cool.

Celebrating my birthday with my district!

So that's my district. Oh I forgot to mention that I'm the district leader again.  That one kinda slipped my mind during the past couple of emails. But I am enjoying it! Old Town is a really good Ward and my district is awesome. It requires a decent amount of studying so that I can keep things interesting and my district up beat. So that means I've been having some really good studies lately. 21 months in and I'm still learning! Pretty cool how the mission works that way.

Dinner at Chipotle with recent converts from Bella Vista. 

Later on Tuesday I had a nice surprise as well. My recent converts from Bella Vista wanted to take me out to dinner. So we met up and it was great because it's been a while since I've been able to see them.

We went to Chipotle and it was super good! Definitely a fun night.

Like I said, other than that not too much really interesting happened. The weather has been kinda funky though. On Tuesday it was like 70 degrees. Yesterday was about in the mid 50s. Like it's December already, come on Virginia you're acting like California! Lol.

Hope you guys have an amazing week and remember, Christmas is coming! Be sure to be doing the activity the church is putting on #LightTheWorld

Elder Biehn