Mission Theme

Mission Theme for 2015 & 2016--Learn it, Live it, Share it

Monday, March 28, 2016

Week 73

April is almost here. It seems like these first three months of the year went by quickly. At this rate, the year will be gone before we know it. Everything is getting green here in Maryland, and I am sure other parts of the mission as well. Easter came pretty early this year, falling on the last Sunday in March. Happy Easter everyone!

The big thing that happened this week is that we had a special training outside the normal district meetings and zone trainings. President Anderson wanted to focus on teaching the Plan of Salvation better as it is normally one of the hardest things to teach people. The reason why it is so hard is that it contains so much doctrine that it can easily over people's heads if we don't teach it properly. The focus of the training is when we teach the Plan of Salvation, we need to focus on the creation, the fall, and the Atonement. When they are better understood, the other parts of the plan make better sense because people see how they fit in.

Elder Bjerregaard
#ASaviorIsBorn

Monday, March 21, 2016

Week 72

Yesterday was the first day of spring, so my last winter on my mission is over. Winter was very bipolar this year. Over the course of this winter, the temperature went up and went down. Some days it was also to seventy degrees (around Christmas time), and other days it was below zero because of the wind chill (sometime in late January). I am hoping that this spring will stay warm, but not too warm where heat exhaustion can become a problem.

The most exciting thing we did this past week was to volunteer at Habitat for Humanity. They had us finish a roof they were doing over a shed, and then pour cement bases for roof supports they are putting in later. We don't know how often we are going to be volunteering for them, but we are thinking about every other week.

I can't believe that it is the last quarter of school again. I remember that when I started to get my cap and gown that being a senior in high school really set in and I realized that my "regular" education was almost over. Now I am approaching my "senior year" (the last six months) of my mission. It probably won't feel to real that my mission is almost over until I get my flight itinerary (a.k.a. trunky papers) during my last transfer.

Fluid started to come out of my ears, so the mission nurse told me to go back to urgent care. I was told that I had “swimmer’s ear” which mean I have an outer ear infection. Everything is normal now, but I do have a constant ringing in my ear. I am hoping that it will go away soon.


Elder Bjerregaard
#ASaviorIsBorn

Monday, March 14, 2016

Week 71

So we are on daylight savings time again in the mission. That means that I am now three hours ahead of the people in Arizona. It's the last time I will have to change my watch while on my mission. The next time I change my watch is when I change it back to MST when I come home from my mission.

I have bad news, and good news. Bad news, I have ear infections in both ears. (Poor guy.) Good news is that I have some antibiotics that will help take care of it. I will start feeling better after three days or so. The only symptom I have is pressure behind the ear drums, but it is really annoying.

I have read in one of the church magazines (I think it is the New Era) that sometimes we view ourselves like a wooden board. When we comment a sin it is like driving a nail into the board. Some people think that when we repent, we take the nail out, but it leaves a hole. What really happens is that we get a brand new board when we repent that perfectly matches the old one without the nails.

We had zone conference this past Thursday. One thing we talked about is the new Easter View, "Hallelujah.” It is a nice little video of about two minutes with young adults quoting from Handel’s Messiah concerning their testimony of Jesus Christ. If you have two minutes, please go to followhim.mormon.org and watch the video. Please share it on social media with your friends.


Elder Bjerregaard

#ASaviorIsBorn

Monday, March 7, 2016

Week 70

It has been seventy weeks already? I guess it is better that it is seventy than a hundred because if it were a hundred there would been only have four more weeks left. It is starting to get warm up here. From what I heard, it is normally mid-forties here, but it has been fifties or sixties. We might be able to take our sweaters off for a little bit this coming week because it is forecasted to be over seventy and we don't have to wear sweaters when it is over seventy.

First something cool that happened that also is sad. When we were walking around on Friday, a couple of A-10's flew over head. That is the cool part. The sad part is that I didn't get a picture of it. By the time I thought about taking a picture, they were already too far way to take a picture of them. A similar thing happened when I was in Linwood. An F-16 landed right in front of me, and I didn't think to grab my camera until his wingman also landed right in front of me. I just wish I got those pictures because they would have been awesome to have.

Last Monday, Brother Dayton took Elder Crowther and me out to see an old 17th century church. It is out in the countryside, and it is really peaceful. I personally just sat on an outside bench. I could just take in the landscape for hours is was so beautiful. It is right on a river so it has a beautiful landscape. He also took us to other places in Dorchester County. It was all very beautiful, amazing what it is like when you get away from where humans have built things and changed what was originally there.

Ok my funny, and somewhat confusing, story of the week. We were walking around a rougher part of Cambridge, and this man stopped us and asked us what we were doing. We told him that we are missionaries and that we going around sharing the Word. We told him a little bit of the foundation of the restoration. We had to go somewhere else and tried to leave, but he still wanted to talk to us so he wouldn't let us leave. He pretty much dragged us to a laundromat down the street where he "introduced" us to a couple of his friends. Elder Crowther started a conversation with this man’s friends while I continued the conversation with him. I was trying to explain why the family is the most important social unit, but somehow he twisted my words in his head. He then said we were trying to be like Hitler, and then said something that we are trying to get everyone under one family and it offended him. I am still confused how he connected strengthen the family so communities will be strengthened to Hitler and what he did. It probably has to do with the fact that he was drunk. We wished him a good day and continued to where we were going.

Elder Bjerregaard
#ASaviorIsBorn

A picture from Michael's last area (Woodstown).