October 17, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey everybody!

This was a bit of a slow week. It really seemed to drag on because we were doing a lot of finding. And I mean A LOT of finding. We have about 4 solid people that we are teaching right now and a lot of less actives. Don't get me wrong, I love less active work because some of these people have had the worst experiences but we are helping them to experience miracles. There is just so many of them here. Like honestly, "Welcome back to the city Elder Biehn, here is your list of 100+ less actives in your area." Being a missionary in the city is mostly less active work 😂 but I do love getting to know these people. I'm so thankful that my mission has really taught me how to be a people person so that way I can connect with these people and be their friend rather than just their missionary. There are some elders in my district who are nothing but missionary robots and it's honestly pretty awkward being with them because they don't know how to talk to people about anything besides the gospel, ha! Anyways, back to the finding. Me and Elder Artinger have been wanting to grow our teaching pool of investigators so we've been hitting the streets a lot. And as we all know, every big city has its slums. Well, that's where we always go, you find some of the most humble people there.

Tracting in "Chirilagua"

For example here's me tracting in a place called "Chirilagua." I honestly felt like I was back in Mexico when I go here. I don't know why but I just love being out in the ghetto areas and talking to everyone there.

Then Sundays are always the most stressful days for missionaries. Want to know why? Well, when a random person gives you a call the morning of and says he wants to go to church and you don't know where he lives or how he's gonna get there. Then you scramble to try and find a ride only to find out he lives outside of your area but it's already too late because he is ready and the member is there to pick him up. So you just go with it and then this is also his first experience going to a Mormon church so you are trying to make sure everything works and are answering all of his questions. Then making sure he has a ride home, it all adds up to a pretty stressful day. There is a reason P-Day comes right after Sunday... haha, then me and Elder Artinger had a missionary correlation meeting with our Ward mission leader right after church.

Eating our to-go meal

Here is us sitting down for the first time on Sunday so that way we could eat our to-go member dinner and then head back out to our appointments 30 minutes later. Only to come to realize that every lesson we had planned fell through and we were stuck with more finding and contacting. Yes, Sundays are stressful as a missionary.

But other than that things are good. Stress is just a part of missionary life and when things actually work out for once, it's the greatest feeling in the world.

Another mildly shocking/scary experience we had. We were giving the other elders a ride to their apartment after our correlation meeting. As we were driving there was this lady and her dog walking on the side of the road, but the dog didn't have a leash. (I think you can already tell where this is going). Next thing we know the dog darts out into the middle of the road right in front of us, and this lady tries to grab it. Thankfully she realizes it's stupid to jump in front of a car to try and save a dog and she just watches in horror as she realizes she is about to watch her little dog get murdered. Luckily, Elder Artinger was able to slam on the brakes and swerve in order to avoid the dog. The lady was in shock but thankfully everything was ok and no one/thing died. Just a close call is all.

Well, that's basically the most of my hectic week. I hope everyone had a bit more of a relaxing week than I did. But hey that's all a part of the mission! Close calls and people's salvation!

Love you guys and talk to you next week!

Elder Biehn

October 10, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey everybody!

The first one: Kids Never Lie. Pretty self-explanatory, but here's the story behind this one. So me and Elder Ramos had gotten quite a few referrals from the Temple Visitor Center that was just across the river in Maryland and we had been trying to contact all of them. This is a lot harder than you think because these people seemingly are never home and don't know how to answer their phone. But we were able to get in contact with one of them and schedule a lesson, the Hermana that had met them in the Visitor center also was talking to her. So we stop by but she was busy, however her "husband" (not actually married but just living together and had kids 🤔) was home and so we taught him. It was a pretty good lesson and we had high hopes for them. We set up a return appointment and head off. Fast forward a week and no one answers for our return appointment BUT it was General Conference weekend and the hermana from the Visitor center got them to commit to coming to see a session. She has been talking to her on the phone this whole time. So we go Sunday morning to check on them and help them get to the church. She answers the door and promises us she will be coming and we set up a return appointment for next Tuesday. Well, once again a no show. She bailed on us so we go back for our return appointment on Tuesday. We knock on the door and there is no answer for a little bit but we hear people inside so we keep knocking. Eventually her little girl answers the door with her mom chasing behind her. I'm thinking, ok finally we can get a lesson with them. This is where it gets good. We ask if her husband is home and she tells us that he still hasn't gotten back from work. Then all of a sudden her little girl turns to her and says "Mommy you're lying, he's in the shower right now." Then she turns to us and tells us, "He's in the bathroom because he's showering. Mommy is lying to you." I heard the shower in the background as well. BUSTED. So me and Elder Ramos just look at her and she had this look of a complete child who got caught with their hand stuck in the cookie jar. Needless to say we were not too happy about that. But I won’t know what happens with her because that leads into the next bit of news.

We had transfers this past week and we'll, I GOT TRANSFERRED. Yet another one and done in a really good Ward. I admit, I was pretty upset to see that I was getting transferred but the good news is I'm in another really good Ward. I'm saying goodbye to the ghetto of Manassas and heading back to the city! I'm in Alexandria now serving in the Old Town Ward. I've heard a lot of good things about this Ward so I'm super excited to be here. And my new companion is super cool  too. His name is Elder Artinger and he is from Reno, Nevada. Here's
us...

Elder Artinger

My old district from Sudley

To be honest I'm pretty excited to be back in the city because I've spent the majority of my mission in the city so it's pretty nice. And here's my old district from Sudley, I'm definitely going to miss them cause we were super close.

But now I'm in Old Town and I'm looking forward to this next transfer.

So the last story is actually a pretty crazy one. It basically shows that I'm serving where all the crazies are at. Ok here's the story. After church we had a dinner with a sister in the Ward and she invited all 6 elders in the Ward to dinner. Well two of them couldn't make it so we had to drive all the way down to the south area which is like a 30 minute drive to go pick up the other 2 elders. Those guys are on bike and then can literally get nowhere. So we went to go pick them up at a clinic because one of them needed to get a tick bite looked at. Long story short we exchanged and the other elders left to go to the dinner and I stayed with the elder in the clinic. Well, 5 minutes after they left, we finished and so I send a text to the other elders to tell them to come back. Then I hear their phone go off and I realize we have both phones and no way to contact them. So we are stuck with no car, no dinner, and both phones. Then the crazy part happens. So me and the other elder are in the most ghetto part of the city and we are out walking at dusk. That's when all the crazies come out. Like, we literally were walking down the street and this guy just kneels down and starts bowing to us. And this happened like 3 times just walking down this one road.

Well, there's my extensive letter. Probably one of the longer letters I've written but man a lot has happened this week.

Love you guys and have a great week!

Elder Biehn

October 3, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey Everybody!

I hope you all had a good General Conference! I know I did. I loved the speakers that were there, they all gave great talks. They answered a lot of the questions that I had which is why it was such a good conference for me. This is why the gospel is so amazing, we get to listen to the prophet and apostles who receive revelation for us every six months! Who else can say that?? I love Conference because it's always a revelatory experience for me of how I can improve and what I can do better. This one was especially special because it's number 4 of 4. Yep, my last Conference of the mission. Man, I remember sitting in the Mexico MTC watching my very first Conference of the mission, thinking "wow I still have 3 more conferences after this." Well, they're all done now! Now I'm more determined than ever to make the last 4 months that I have some of the greatest on my mission. 

We ended up watching conference in almost all Recent Converts homes. The session on Saturday we watched with Pedro, the guy that got baptized 4 weeks ago, where he is living. Then Sunday morning in the church, and Sunday afternoon with Luis and Kathy, the family that got baptized last week. So this was a great weekend.

Some other stuff that happened this week is that is official Fall! No more hot weather! It's been so nice lately with the changing of the seasons. The last week has been almost nonstop clouds and rain. But the past two day have been sitting at a nice mid-70 degrees. We had a pretty huge rainstorm on Wednesday where we literally couldn't even get to our car without getting drenched. So one brave elder sacrificed himself to bring the cars to us!

 

 We also recorded the whole adventure of trying to get the cars off of the patio of the church which was super funny. It was raining so hard, haha!

Let's see here, something I've been studying a lot about lately has been the Savior. I wanted to know exactly how the atonement works and applies to everyone even when people don't want to live the way God has commanded and still think they will be saved. Well, Alma 42 summed that up really nicely. Basically, the atonement is there for us to apply mercy, so that way God is a merciful God. But he can't be that way with everyone because he still needs to be a just God. So how do the two co-exist? Well, it's through the atonement. Because of the atonement Jesus has already suffered for our sins and all we need to do is ask for forgiveness. It's readily available because the price has already been paid! But then there are the people who are too proud to repent, thinking that God will save them no matter what. Doesn't work that way! We have to live according to the rules and guideline he has placed for us, and if we don't, then we are denying ourselves the blessings and overall salvation. So don't go through this life thinking that God will save us anyways, or that we can just repent later. What happened in the parable of the 10 Virgins? 5 were ready to meet the bridegroom, 5 were not. These 10 virgins each apply to us as Latter Day Saints. Some saints will be ready for the Second Coming, others will not be because they haven't been living in accordance to all of God’s commandments. Not everyone will be placed into the celestial kingdom, we have to do our part in order to earn our salvation. It's such a simple idea but such a complex process. What we need to do as Latter Day Saints is live ALL of Gods commandments. Only by that can we be happy. And God is there to help us along the way! He wants us to succeed! He wants to bless our lives. We just have to trust in him and his plan and use the atonement to better our own lives.

Well, that's what I've learned over the past 19 months. There's my rant because I'm tired of seeing people who say they believe in God and Jesus Christ but literally do nothing and think grace will save them in the end. Doesn't work that way.

What brings this up is that we've been doing pretty much non-stop finding this past week. We kinda accidentally baptized all of our investigators so now we have no one to teach. Weird situation, I know. First time I've come across it in my mission actually, but that's a story for another day.

Love you guys and pray for us to find more people to teach and that we can receive miracles!

From

Elder Biehn

September 26, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey everybody!

This week has been an awesome week! A lot has happened but the best of it all was that we had a weekend in white! We were able to baptize a FAMILY! Our investigators Luis and Kathy, who are an amazing family. They are going to be super strong members in the church. 

It's them and then they have their two kids who are 7 and 3. So one of them is going to be getting baptized next year too! Too bad I won't be here for it. But hey, they are in an awesome Ward. And their whole family even came as well! Kathy has family that are already members and they drove all the way from Florida to come and see her baptism. Everyone was super happy for them.

That same Sunday, our recent convert Pedro who got baptized two weeks ago, received the Aaronic Priesthood. He was so excited for it he even went out and bought a brand new white shirt and tie that he could wear to church. So overall I would say this was a REALLY good Sunday. 

Hmm, what else happened this week?  We crashed a party in the ghetto part of our area, that was pretty fun. Haha. Our investigators family that doesn't live in the best part of town was throwing a party for their daughter’s birthday. And I kid you not, I'm pretty sure the entire neighborhood was there. It was huge! 

We also got dinner from one of the rich members in the Ward. He signed up on our meal calendar but he got called in to work on the day he was supposed to feed us. So he dropped $100 dollars on us to go out and eat on him! We kinda spoiled ourselves 

That's right! Red Lobster baby! Crab, Lobster, and shrimp! Probably the first and only time I will ever eat at a restaurant like this on my mission. But dang it was so good, 

So yeah, an overall awesome week. This week is going to be great as well since General Conference is coming. I'm totally looking forward to listening to the prophet and apostles and other leaders of the church speak. Conference always just puts you on the spiritual high, even as a missionary. And it's going to be the last one of my mission! How crazy is that??

That's it for this email. Love you guys and talk to you next week!

Elder Biehn

September 19, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey everybody!

Not much happened this week. It was kinda slow so I don't really have that much to talk about. However, we were able to find a new investigator and she seems pretty interested. Like we were out tracting and she was outside her house so of course we are going to go talk to her. We taught her about the restoration, nothing too different, just a usual restoration lesson and we left her a Book of Mormon to read and set up an appointment for the following Friday. (This happened on Tuesday). So Friday comes along and we head over to her house. Now, I've seen this 1000 times before where we have a really good first contact and we set up the return appointment then when we stop by we can never find the person ever again. But that didn't happen this time! Not only was she there, but she actually read in the Book of Mormon and remembered we were coming! Those are two huge things! So I'm pretty excited about this investigator, pretty sure she's going to get baptized 

So what else?  oh yeah we did this pretty gnarly service on Saturday. So we had a couple of Wards get together to try and clean up the area surrounding the church building. There is a little water ravine that has been completely overgrown due to neglect and being in Virginia where EVERYTHING grows anywhere. So we got together to do that and clean out all the underbrush and whatever dead trees there were. It was actually fun work because we had chainsaws and Machetes and it is so fun to watch a tree fall down and everyone shouts "timber!" We even had a wood chipper there and that thing was running nonstop to try and shred all the wood we were cutting down. I didn't take any pictures of it BUT we are going back Saturday to finish up so I can take some then and show you. It's a huge difference. Like we clear it out and I had no idea there was a huge field on the other side of the tress! 

Last but not least, our investigator had her baptismal interview this past Sunday, and she passed! So we are getting ready for another baptism coming up on the 25th. Her whole family is coming to see because a lot of her aunts and uncle are already Mormon, so they are super excited for her. But man, she is awesome!. Her and her family, they were honestly a miracle because Elder Ramos was teaching them before I came here, he told me that they just showed up one day in church because they felt like it was the right church to go to. Like, seriously?? It doesn't get better than that!

Well, that's it for this week guys! Love you and have a great week!

From 

Elder Biehn 

September 12, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey everybody!

So I had a great week! First off, let me show you why...

WE HAD A BAPTISM! Man, it's been a while since I had one of those, haha. But seriously this guy here is awesome. His name is Pedro and he was SO excited to get baptized. Like, he would call us on the phone every day just to tell us how happy he was that he was getting baptized this week. Then he had the biggest grin on his face after he was baptized. He is just so excited to have found the true church because he was originally studying to become a Priest in the Catholic Church. So quite a miracle if you ask me.

Yesterday, I had another one of those "last door" experiences. So it was just after church and our correlation meeting with the Ward mission Leader, and we were out looking for people. We were going through our Area Book trying to figure out who some of the people were because there are just a lot of random names in there. Well, we were in Centreville and it was literally the last person on our list before we were going to call it and go have some dinner. We knock on this last door and of course the guy we were looking for doesn't live there. BUT the guy who did answer the door has seen the missionaries before back in his country of Colombia.  He's also seen the temple as he's been driving on the 495 freeway and was really curious. (That was excellent positioning by the Church to put the 3rd biggest temple in the world right next to the freeway! I've gotten so many questions about it throughout my entire mission because EVERYONE has seen it and it works out perfectly!) Anyways, he invited us right in without even waiting for us to give our typical door approach and an hour later this guy now has a brand new Book of Mormon and has promised to read it and come to church. I LOVE IT WHEN WE FIND THE PREPARED PEOPLE! It makes missionary life so much easier.

So I'm pretty excited to be in this area because we've got a lot going right now. People on date and lots of others that have potential to be put on date and be baptized. Then of course, going out and finding the prepared!

I'm loving my mission right now and being able to teach and testify of Jesus Christ on a daily basis. It really is the source of true happiness once you have a basic understanding of the Gospel. I don't know everything, but what I do know I'm sharing with everyone.

Spanish forum with all the Spanish missionaries in the mission

Love you all and have a great week!

Elder Biehn

Lunch at Cafe Rio after SED Spanish forum

September 5, 3016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey guys!

I want to start off by saying that I'm loving it out here in Manassas. The Sudley Ward is awesome!  There are lots of great members that are really involved in the work and trying to help the missionaries.  Speaking of which, I had forgotten how hard it is to try and get to know a brand new Ward, since I've only had to do it 3 times in my ENTIRE mission. Yeah, after 18 months this is only my 4th Ward. Two weeks ago I was telling Elder Walker how hard it was to pack because I've only been transferred out of an area like 3 times, so I've almost NEVER have had to pack.  But it's a fun experience trying to learn a whole new area. After just a week and a half I'm already starting to figure out where everything is at. And I'm already starting to get some good relationships with the members. That part is key!
So here's an update on how thing are going for my area. The thing that probably surprised me the most is how humble the people are out here. It might be because of their condition or it might just be because the Lord has softened the hearts of this people, I don't know. But what I do know is that we are having a lot more success here than I ever did in the city. And I say in the city because it is so country out here like you wouldn't believe! Half our area we can't even go to because it's just all farms. Like look at this!  

Suddenly Elder Biehn finds himself tracting through the Bamboo forest of China.  This is actually the backyard of a member, but still, you get the idea.  

Then there's also these awesome horizons

But the reason I say these people are humble is because a lot of them are willing to listen. Now of course there are a few exceptions and I'll get into that later. But! Good news is that we have a total 3 people on date right now for the 10 of September. Yep, this coming Saturday. So me and Elder Ramos are running around scrambling to make sure everything is prepared for the baptisms. It's gonna be an awesome weekend, I can tell you that much!

Now as to those exceptions I was telling you about. This week seemed to be full of Bible Bashers. Like unusually full. Almost every other person that we talked to was a devoted Catholic that just started throwing out bible references left and right. Now, we aren't supposed to bible bash but sometimes it's just fun because some of the things these people say crack me up. And me and Elder Ramos both have been out on our missions for a year and a half so we've had plenty of experience with bible bashers. Me, personally, I've spent quite a bit of time studying the bible because I wanted to know exactly what these people were talking about and how to respond to these assaults, but it has ended up helping me get a better understanding of the Savior and how the church was anciently. So now, I don't think there is a single lesson where I don't use a scripture from the bible, which really helps because the bible is what these people actually believe in!  However sometimes, no matter what you do people just want to argue. For example this one guy Elder Ramos had talked to before. He wanted to go back and apologize to him if he offended him in any way because it ended up being a bible bash for more than an hour. You know what he did? He took his apology and threw right back in our faces! He said, and I quote, "Bring out your bible. Let's read a little bit." At this point I was thinking, oh boy here we go. And after 20 minutes of nonstop bible bashing where we were proving him wrong point to point, we tried to leave because we knew he wouldn't listen. So we tried to politely excuse ourselves and he denied us leaving. Like, legit he said "No you can leave yet until we've figured this out" which actually means 'until I've proven you wrong.' We didn't leave and so we tried again this time a bit more forceful. Still the same result. I wasn't in the best of moods by this point so I got up grabbed my bag, said have a nice day, and left. That was it. It's sad to think that people just use the Gospel as another topic for argument rather than actually paying attention to what the scriptures say and applying it to their lives. But, if it wasn't so then Joseph Smith never would have had the impression to go pray in the garden about which church he should join. The most important thing to remember is that we have the restored gospel on the earth today with all of the priesthood and ordinances that were in Christ's original church. It is even the same exact organization and everything can be proven by scriptures. But it's not the proof that's important, it's the impressions of the Holy Ghost telling someone that this is true. That's the key to conversion, a witness from the Holy Ghost.

Love you guys and I'll talk to you next week! Look forward to a weekend in white!

Elder Biehn