August 8, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hola a todos!

This week hasn't been too eventful to be honest. Just another week in the life of a missionary. We did however get a good amount of lessons with people which is always a plus. So I don't have too much to say but I do have a couple of pictures to show you guys.

WE HAD A BBQ! This was at a member’s house who absolutely LOVES the missionaries. His name is Rudy and we are practically his best friends. So yeah, we are always doing things at his house and this time he wanted to feed us, so he asks us what we want and I say hamburgers. Next thing I know he's going to Costco to get hot dogs and hamburger meat and we have a full on BBQ. You can't believe how happy I was to be able to cook those hamburgers, they turned out SOO good and there was a ton. It was awesome!

Now this is a picture of us in our English class that we do. As you can see we have pretty good amount of people that come every Thursday night. It's really helpful because this way we have some way to help out our investigators AND members all at the same time with something that they can use in their daily lives. The one all the way to the left in the blue shirt is our investigator Nelson. He is awesome and has been a champ these past two weeks ever since we found him. He's been listening to the lessons, going to English class, and just yesterday he came to church for the first time! It was

awesome to see that and we are hoping to be able to get him on date for baptism soon. He's coming along great in the gospel and it's awesome to see that he feels the spirit. We took him on a church tour right after the English class and we showed him the Chapel. What a coincidence that someone was practicing the organ right when we walked in, which set the mood perfectly! The person was playing families can be together forever and you could just see it in his face how much he felt the spirit.

Well, that's it for this week. Love you guys and I'll talk to you next week!

Elder Biehn

August 1, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey everybody!

Boy do I have a story for you! But first I'm going to start with what happened at zone conference. So it never ceases to amaze me how much I can still learn as a missionary even though I've been out for nearly a year and a half now. This past zone conference really testified of that because I am still learning ways that I can keep improving my teaching skills as a missionary. It's not so much what I learned that impressed me (even though it was very helpful) but more so the WAY that I learned. Preach My Gospel mentions that our purpose as missionaries is to "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end." This is nothing new to missionaries as in we recite this before every meeting that we have whether it is district meeting, zone meeting, zone conference, etc. Bottom line is we say it so much it should be ingrained in our head. But this past zone conference really hit me hard on two key points of our purpose that I always seem to overlook, no matter how many times I recite this phrase by memory. It is that we are to INVITE others to come unto Christ by helping them... REPENT. No matter how many times I recite this line, it never occurred to me in my 17 months of being a missionary this is EVERYTHING I should be doing. I remembered (<--take note of that word because it is really important) that I need to be helping people to repent of their sins through invitations! Something I had started to slack on because I thought I knew what I was doing. But the important thing is that now I remember what is the perfect way to help others. I really enjoyed this little call to repentance because I realized the way the Lord teaches us, which is by helping us to remember his doctrine. As members of the church I don't think that there is hardly anything actually NEW that we learn just because we have had lots of experience in the gospel, so why is it that we are always faltering on the things of the church? It's because we are forgetting the most important things which simply become routine. The word most used in the scriptures isn't faith or repent or love (but these are all very important), but it is remember! We can learn the doctrine all day if we wanted to but if we don't remember what it says or remember to apply it to our lives, it profiteth us nothing! We need to always remember what the savior taught and the direction of the prophets if we wish to live the way that Heavenly Father wants us to live. Remembering is key to salvation! So that was my little spark of revelation that I had during my training which I think is pretty key to the gospel.

Now onto my next story. So we were just doing some regular tracting late at night and it was getting to be about that time to call it quits. But we decided to do one more door right at 8:55. And that was an amazing idea! We met this awesome lady named Melissa. And she is SOO prepared, like I can't even tell you how excited she was to see that we had knocked on her door. So she is a Catholic school teacher and knows a ton about the bible, but she has always had questions about the Mormon religion and Christianity in general. Long story short, she was super excited to have us over and even more excited when we gave her a Book of Mormon. Keep in mind this was all English and I think I've talked to people in English probably a total of one week during my whole mission. So I was more than a little worried about how it would go. But it was awesome and definitely something I will remember.

Well, that's the highlight of my week. Love you guys and talk to you next week!

Elder Biehn

July 26, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey guys!

So first week is done with my new greenie elder Walker! He's getting a bit more accustomed to missionary life now. Lots of finding and really just trying to keep the area going. We've got a couple of awesome people we are working with right now which is great when we can see them. But that's the problem is that we only have a couple of people right now that we visit on a regular basis. So that means finding! And you know what the best part is???


IT’S 103 DEGREES!! And with Virginia humidity it feels like 107!! Is that just great for finding??..... It's so hot.... Last summer wasn't nearly this bad. Glad I don't have to go through ANOTHER one after this. Speaking of which, today is my 17 Month Mark! Not that I'm trunky or anything, it's just that's a really long time! And I'm going through a lot of my "last" things. Like I can't believe July is already almost over and it is about to be August. Then come Christmas and winter! Wow it feels like the blizzard we had was just last week, but nope that was in January.

So not much other than that. It was a pretty boring week filled a lot with finding and not much going on. Sorry that I can't write more but there isn't anything too interesting about a sweaty Elder Biehn walking around in the hot sun all day. I've had to start carrying around a little handkerchief to wipe my sweat. Not fun...

Love you guys and I'll talk to you next week!

Elder Biehn

July 18, 2016 Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey everybody!

So I forgot to mention in my last email that we had transfers coming up this past Thursday. So I've got good news and bad news. Bad news is Elder Coburn got transferred out and now I'm out of Arlington. Good news however is that I'm back in Falls Church and IM TRAINING! That's right I got my very own greenie to take care of. Well, actually, it's more like he's taking care of me! His name is Elder Walker and he is from Sandy, Utah. Another one from the factory as all the members out here in Virginia say. He already knows so much that there is hardly anything I really have to train him on. Just how to adjust to mission life in the field (because as we all know that the MTC is WAY different than the real world) and helping him to improve the way that he teaches. Other than that he's got basically all the doctrine memorized and he's good to go.

So here's a district photo we took on our last district meeting of the transfer. This was before everyone got switched around but after Elder Cottle went home, so he isn't in it  but he already had his surgery and is doing great! Just waiting on the recovery time so he can make back out to the mission field by next transfer.

From Left to Right: Hermana Bliss, Hermana Harley, Elder Thompson, Elder Coburn, and Me.

So what happened with transfers is Hermana Bliss and Elder Coburn got transferred out. Elder Thompson got his second companion and me and Hermana Harley are both training right now. (Don't worry pictures will come)

So my second day with Elder Walker was kinda a weird one for him but not really for me. The daughter of my not so recent recent convert just turn 15, and you know what that means in Hispanic culture. ¡QUINCEAÑERA! 

So that's what Elder Walker looks like. It was pretty cool! Lots of people were there and there was some great food. Not to mention it was a great chance for Elder Walker to start to meet people within the Ward.

I would say it's been a pretty eventful week. Lots of stuff happened but things are going good right now. Me and all the other Elders will be going into DC today and so more pictures to come. But isn't that an awesome first P-Day for Elder Walker?? Being able to go to DC!

Love you guys so much!  You'll hear from me next week.

Elder Biehn

July 11, 2016 Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey Everyone!

This has been a pretty good week in my opinion. It had its ups and downs, like entire day's falling through or people falling off date, but that's mission life. You gotta take the bad with the good, and I definitely think there was a lot more good that happened this week.

So to start off, we had Spanish Forum this week! All the Spanish missionaries got together to have our own Spanish specific meeting. Something cool that happened recently is that we just got a new addition to our mission. The Woodbridge area is now part of the Washington DC South Mission which gives us another Ward and 6 new missionaries. The only downside to this is that their area has bikes, so Spanish speakers aren't guaranteed a car anymore.  So hopefully I don't get transferred there any time soon. Speaking of transfers, that will be happening this Thursday. I'm 99% sure I'll be staying in Falls Church and I'll finally get a new companion to replace Elder Cottle. It's been fun with Elder Coburn and Elder Thompson but it's just so hard to take care of my area and their area at the same time. So I'll enjoy being able to split up again and be more focused.

Ok so about the day that everything literally fell through. It's pretty funny looking back on it just because of how it all crumbled down in a matter of minutes. Literally not even 10 minutes and our whole day was shot. So we were going to start off by doing a split, Me and Elder Coburn would go to a lesson in Falls Church and Elder Thompson would take a youth with him to be his companion. Well, the youth ended up having to cancel because of an issue that came up where he needed to help his mom. This is where it starts to take a nose dive. So we are scrambling trying to reorganize our lessons and we are realizing it just isn't possible because we have to drive 10 miles in 2 minutes 3 times if we want to make our lessons. It was a hard decision trying to figure out what to cancel because it was for both our areas, but eventually we decided on staying in Falls Church to do a Noche de Hogar with a member and her friends. Well, she had to postpone the lesson because she got home from work late, causing us to cancel our lesson for 8 as well. Then we come to find out her son isn't home and we can't even go inside in the first place! It was pretty ridiculous how it all went down but good news is that we were at least able to reschedule all the appointments for later days. So no big deal, just a funny story.

So the best part of the week was in fact yesterday, Sunday. I had to give a lesson during second hour all by myself because the Hermanas were busy with investigators, the ward mission leader is in Utah, and the elders were filling up the font. Yep, Baptism! But it wasn't our baptism, it was one of the kids that the hermanas were teaching. And they asked me to baptize her! It was great because I haven't been able to baptize someone ever since my first baptism with Lesly over a year ago. So I was pretty happy to be able to put on full white again. Sorry I don't have any pictures right now, the hermanas still need to send me them.

Then after the baptism we rush to have dinner with a member then we are off again to a Charla Fogonera (fireside). But this isn't any ordinary fireside, no this is the first ever Spanish Regional Fireside of Northern Virginia (aka Washington DC South Mission). It was a member specific fireside where every ward in the Washington DC South Mission was invited. It was huge! The whole chapel was packed! And the best part was I got to see all my favorite people from Little River. I couldn't believe how happy some of them were to see me! I snuck up behind one person that I worked with a lot when I was there and she started jumping because she couldn't believe I was back.  That's basically how it was like when I talked to all of my favorite people. I didn't realize how much of an impact I could have on someone's life.

Definitely a good week. The good definitely outweighs the bad in this case so I enjoyed it. So yeah I’m still going strong and I'm looking forward to this Thursday because then I get my new companion and it's back to work in Falls Church!

Love you guys and thanks for all the support!

Elder Biehn

July 4, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey guys,

This has been one hectic week to say the least. But first things first I have to let you know that Elder Cottle ended up going home during this past week. He has been really sick lately and hasn't been able to do anything. So it's not bad to be sick, it's just that he ha sheen sick like this before and very recently. I took him to the doctor and they diagnosed him with tonsillitis. So in other words he has to get his tonsils removed. We thought this would just be a quick surgery with maybe a week recovery time and boom we're back to work. Well we were wrong. Apparently it's one week of bed rest and then 2 weeks after that of not being able to eat or say hardly anything and then just being in constant pain. So after hearing this, he decided it would be best to go home ASAP. The doctor’s appointment was Tuesday, Wednesday was spent packing, and Thursday president came to pick him up at 5 in the morning. I admit I was pretty sad to see him leave because we had been getting along so well and getting work done in our area, but God has other plans for him right now. For example, now he will be able to see his brother’s wedding! He can also get fixed up so that way he isn't sick all the time. Then he'll come back in August better than ever and ready to work! So I'm looking forward to that, but until then... I'm with Elder Coburn and Elder Thompson in Arlington. Yep, I'm back in my very first area and in my very first apartment. Which I am so thankful for, the other one is trash compared to this haha. But the only difference is I have to sleep on the couch since we don't have enough beds. Woohoo Trio Life!  that's the mission for you. Do what you can to make sure you can work. So I'm only going to be in a trio for two more weeks, until transfers. Then I'll get a new companion and it's back to the Falls Church apartments. So until then, trio-ing it up in Arlington! It really helps so that I can see my recent converts more frequently  Let's see, anything else?

We played soccer today as a Spanish program. Best part is that it was in the rain too!

What else....

We all got sunburnt from a zone service project we did. Spent the whole morning outside on probably one of the hottest days. And guess who forgot to pack sunscreen... This guy!

Soccer as a Spanish Program

Then I guess the last thing is that one of the hermanas that served in the Bella vista Ward about a year ago passed away in a car accident. A lot of our members here are really upset about it because she did a lot for this Ward. So I would ask if you could just keep this hermana's family and all her friends here in Bella vista in your prayers. Thanks guys

Love you all and I hope you have a great 4th of July!

Elder Biehn

Service Project

Sun burnt after a hard day of service.

July 4, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey guys,

This has been one hectic week to say the least. But first things first I have to let you know that Elder Cottle ended up going home during this past week. He has been really sick lately and hasn't been able to do anything. So it's not bad to be sick, it's just that he ha sheen sick like this before and very recently. I took him to the doctor and they diagnosed him with tonsillitis. So in other words he has to get his tonsils removed. We thought this would just be a quick surgery with maybe a week recovery time and boom we're back to work. Well we were wrong. Apparently it's one week of bed rest and then 2 weeks after that of not being able to eat or say hardly anything and then just being in constant pain. So after hearing this, he decided it would be best to go home ASAP. The doctor’s appointment was Tuesday, Wednesday was spent packing, and Thursday president came to pick him up at 5 in the morning. I admit I was pretty sad to see him leave because we had been getting along so well and getting work done in our area, but God has other plans for him right now. For example, now he will be able to see his brother’s wedding! He can also get fixed up so that way he isn't sick all the time. Then he'll come back in August better than ever and ready to work! So I'm looking forward to that, but until then... I'm with Elder Coburn and Elder Thompson in Arlington. Yep, I'm back in my very first area and in my very first apartment. Which I am so thankful for, the other one is trash compared to this haha. But the only difference is I have to sleep on the couch since we don't have enough beds. Woohoo Trio Life!  that's the mission for you. Do what you can to make sure you can work. So I'm only going to be in a trio for two more weeks, until transfers. Then I'll get a new companion and it's back to the falls church apartments. So until then, trio-ing it up in Arlington! It really helps so that I can see my recent converts more frequently  Let's see, anything else?

We played soccer today as a Spanish program. Best part is that it was in the rain too!

What else....

We all got sunburnt from a zone service project we did. Spent the whole morning outside on probably one of the hottest days. And guess who forgot to pack sunscreen... This guy!

Soccer as a Spanish Program

Then I guess the last thing is that one of the hermanas that served in the Bella vista Ward about a year ago passed away in a car accident. A lot of our members here are really upset about it because she did a lot for this Ward. So I would ask if you could just keep this hermana's family and all her friends here in Bella vista in your prayers. Thanks guys

Love you all and I hope you have a great 4th of July!

Elder Biehn

Service Project

Sun burnt after a hard day of service.