January 18, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update Postponed

Hey so I will be writing tomorrow. I'll let you know why then!

January 11, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Well, I gotta say that not much has really happened this week. The work is still going forward and me and Elder Castillo are still here in Little River. However, things are progressing pretty smoothly with the members right now. They are starting to have more interest in the missionaries and actually getting to know us. It's funny because every single missionary in this ward has been here for at least 3 months now and the members are just barely starting to remember our names. I've personally been here for 4 1/2 months now and I've gotten a pretty good relationship with most of the members in the ward.

Now, the transfer is starting to come to an end and it will be transfers once again next week. So since I have been here for 4 ½ months, that is usually about the time that things get changed around and a missionary gets transferred out. So I'm thinking I'm going to be leaving, however my mission president told me something very interesting. He said that his plan is to try to keep senior companions in an area for longer so that way they have a chance to really get to know the ward. So, whether or not that is going to happen to me, I have no idea. But now I'm really unsure if I'm going to be staying or leaving. All I know is that there is going to be a big change to my district next week. Let's just say I'm anxious to hear what's going to be happening.

Love you guys and talk to you next week!

Elder Biehn

January 4, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

First I want to wish everybody a happy new year and I hope that 2016 will be an even better year! The past week was really up and down for me. As in some days our schedule was completely packed and other days we had absolutely nothing to do. For example, Tuesday we had a scheduled trip to go to the temple with some members. There's a funny story to that, but I'll talk about it later. Wednesday we had absolutely nothing to do. All of our investigators that we normally visit had gone out of town for the holidays, even the members we couldn't get in contact with. Then Thursday comes, New Year's Eve, and we aren't allowed to be out past 6. There's another really good story to that... Friday, was the same, nobody home at all. Tried to call investigators, no one answered. Knocked doors, no one answered. And it follows this pattern for the rest of the week. Now that the holidays have ended, hopefully things begin to calm back down and people will actually be in their homes.

Now, as for those stories. The one the happened on Tuesday was pretty funny. So me and Elder Castillo are running some errands and we had to stop by the mission office to drop off a few things and pick some other stuff up, no big deal. Well, while we are there, Sister Anderson (the senior sister in charge of the front desk) gets a call from one of the missionaries. Turns out it is the Spanish Elders from Old Town, the area just east of mine. They had called asking for the office elders or the APs, but neither of them were there, however I was! So she hands the phone to me. Apparently, these guys had locked their keys in their car and were now stuck and needed help. Since me and Elder Castillo were there, we got volunteered. At this time, it's about 4 in the afternoon and it would take about 45 minutes to get to where these elders are at in Old Town. We were supposed to meet up with the members to go to the temple at around 5ish. So I'm thinking, ok we can squeeze this in. So off we go with the spare keys. It takes longer than 45 minutes because of traffic and we get to their car but we couldn't find them. They had left their car and weren't answering their phone. I decide to just unlock their car for them and hide their keys somewhere they could find them (They had locked it inside of their trunk, I left them behind their GPS). So we leave because it's 5 and we are already late. Then they call us, asking where we were at. I wanted to mess with them, so I told them we couldn't wait around all day and we had to leave. He nearly flips out, like, "What are you talking about? You can't leave! We are going to get towed! Where did you go?!" And on and on like that. Finally, after laughing a little bit and making him sweat, I told him his car was unlocked and his keys were behind their GPS. He was a little mad, and told me I nearly gave him a heart attack, but it was alright. Now we had to get to the members house and it was 5 o'clock. I was certain it was going to take hours because of traffic and it is at least a 45 min drive, but a miracle happened. There was absolutely no traffic at all, in the middle of rush hour, and we were able to get there in 20 minutes. I don't know how but I guarantee you I wasn't speeding. The Tiwi in our car makes sure of that. So we were able to get to the members house and go to the temple to see the lights.

So now onto New Year's Eve. Our rule is that we aren't allowed to be out past 6 on New Year’s because of all the parties, and drunk people, and it's just overall dangerous. So we have a zone party in one of the church buildings nearby. All the missionaries within my zone are there and we are playing volleyball, eating pizza, and we even got permission to watch a movie. Guess what movie we watched. THE BEST 2 YEARS! I was so excited to be able to watch that again and it is so much funnier now that I'm on a mission! I can relate to a lot of things! I loved being able to watch this movie with the missionaries in the zone. Then, since we had to be home by 10:30, we did our own little New Year’s countdown and had some sparkling cider. It was funny because at the end of the countdown, the elders with the cider shook up the bottle and starting spraying everywhere, just like a New Year’s party!

So the holidays were fun, but now it's time to get back to work and focusing and the gospel. Everybody is back from vacations so now we can start working with them once again.

That's all for this week!

From,
Elder Biehn

December 28, 2015 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

First off I want to wish everybody Merry Christmas for the last time until 2016, and I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas as well! I sure did and pretty much this entire week. It has been interesting to say the least. Not only were there a ton of meeting and parties and what not (which means little proselyting time), but all of our investigators and less actives left for vacations. So we got practically nothing done in that sense. However, we did manage to visit a lot of members which was well needed. We spent a lot of time at member’s homes this week visiting them and basically trying to get to know them better.

Now some of the REALLY cool things I did this week happened on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day. First, Christmas Eve. Like I said in my last letter, my mission was performing in a choir for the Washington DC Temple Visitor center. The show turned out great! However I ended up not singing. Not because I was being lazy, or had stage fright, nothing like that. That is because I opted out of singing in order to record the whole thing. Yep, I know, that's typical of me. I prefer to be behind the camera anyways. But that's what I needed to be doing because the senior couple in charge of putting the whole thing together hadn't planned to record any of it. At least not until I went and talked to them, which ended up putting me in charge of the whole tech part of the show. (I was not complaining about that, by the way). So I wrangled together what few cameras that were available and I tried my best to record the whole thing. Now I have some footage and these upcoming few weeks will be spent editing the recordings. (Still not complaining). I'm hoping that I can deliver on what everyone is expecting to be a great performance.

Now for Christmas... Oh man, best part was talking to my family, hands down. Of course opening presents was nice because I got some stuff I needed, some fun stuff, and candy... Lots and lots of candy. Christmas Day was spent visiting members for practically the whole day. Them feeding us as well, not as much as Thanksgiving but still a good amount that I was sufficiently full. It's funny to think how Christmas just came and is gone once again. It honestly didn't feel much like Christmas, being a missionary and all really separates you from the world and all the gift shopping and craziness of the holidays, and really helps to focus on the Savior. So in a sense, every day is Christmas for me, just without the presents and talking to my family.

My family did something really cool for me. They went to friends and family and asked to donate a tie so that my family can put together a 12 ties of Christmas. It was great to be able to open one present every morning and see the new tie, who it came from, and their story behind it. Thanks to everybody who helped make my Christmas great even here in Virginia. Now with the New Year, it's time to get back to work in serving the Lord.

Elder Biehn

December 21, 2015 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey everybody!

So this is my last Pday before Christmas which means lots to do. We have our last choir practice before our performance in the temple visitor center this Christmas Eve. Speaking of Christmas, we had our Christmas parties this week as well. Both for the mission and for my ward. The mission Christmas conference was awesome because we got to listen to President Huntsman speak about the Savior, had a lunch provided for us, and then had a talent show! It was so funny to watch the talent show. There were a lot of cool acts, especially ours. The Spanish program did an act where we sang and danced to Feliz Navidad. We were all dressed up in traditional Hispanic clothing and it was awesome. I'll include a picture. Then our ward Christmas party was great. Lots of people, lots of food, and then dancing. But I'm not allowed to dance so I didn't do any of that. But still, it was fun! After being in a ward for more than 3 months, the members become great friends.

Merry Christmas! And remember what is the purpose of Christmas, it is our Savior!

Love Elder Biehn

December 14, 2015 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey guys!

So not really all that much to report on for this week, nothing too crazy happened. Although, I did have transfers on Thursday. But don't worry, I didn't get transferred. Neither did Elder Castillo so we are still together. Neither did the other two elders in my district. In fact the only change that happened was one of the hermanas finished her mission and went home. So now Hermana Craner is in my district again! I'm super excited because we were in the CCM together and now we are finally serving together again. It'll be just like old times, haha. It only took 9 months to happen. Now if only I could get to serve with Elder Everett again, that would be cool!

But other than that, nothing too interesting. This past week was honestly kind of boring. But the upcoming week... Should be fun. We have plans to go to the temple with some of our investigators, there is the mission Christmas party, our ward Christmas party. Lots of cool stuff going on. So next week should be a pretty good email, unlike this one.

Love you guys and you'll hear from me next week!

Love Elder Biehn

December 7, 2015 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hello!

So this letter is going to be a bit short because we have choir practice today and I still need to go and do shopping, etc. P-Day things. We only have about 2 more weeks before we (as a mission) perform in the Washington D.C. Temple Visitor Center on Christmas Eve for the Festival of Lights. I think we sound great and it should be an awesome experience. It will be my first time being in a choir, and it'll be my first time singing in front of people.

But I had a really cool experience this past week. Recently, we found a less active member and have been trying to teach her and get her active again. She is really cool, from Nicaragua (don't see that too much here) and acts a lot like a grandma with us. Anyways, we had a lesson with her on Friday and we had Obispo (Bishop) with us. It's a good thing because otherwise we wouldn't have been able to go in. I haven't even seen her husband because he works all the time. So, not only was she home, but also her sister, her friend, and a much younger girl as well. We had already planned on talking about Joseph Smith and the Restoration, so this was perfect! We were able to get them interested by talking about the temple and inviting them to the Festival of Lights, then about other church activities as well. Then we get to the lesson. We were able to talk solely on the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. The spirit was SO strong and it was exactly what I was looking for. I was able to testify of the Restored Gospel so strongly that I even surprised myself! It seemed like they were starting to drift (fall asleep) but once I started talking and testifying, they were wide awake and paying attention. At the end, they were even asking where the church is and what time it starts (but they didn't come yesterday ). We got everyone's contact info and a plan to meet again this upcoming Friday. It was a great lesson and exactly what I needed.

Love you guys and you'll hear from me next week!

Elder Biehn

P.S. Merry Christmas! It's coming up fast!