A Quick Update... Letter to Dad Apr 29, 2013

So, I will just give you an update on what is happening now- a missionary in our Zone just went home so now we have his companion as our third companion. This third companion is so cool, so I am excited to have him!  I am excited to be helping both missionaries. This week will be interesting! Thanks for your prayers! I can feel their sustaining power. I love you, my good man!

 

                                                                                                    Love,

                                                                                        -Elder Ryan A. Bell

 

P.S. What if you cut a few inches at a time off the branch by the power line so only little pieces might touch the line, rather than the whole thing coming down? Has Jordan tried to develop any crazy mathematic formulas to remove the branch? It might not help, but it sure would be entertaining!

 

HA! Just kidding, I love that boy. He just makes me laugh. You make me laugh too.

Ripple Effect

This week, my companion and I got to teach a one hour class 5 times at the local Stake Youth Conference. The whole conference was a simulated mission. Each Youth had a nametag, was assigned to a mission, and had a companion. Elder McKell and I were supposed to teach what a day in the life of a missionary is like, so we brought in bedding and really acted out waking up at 6:30 am with all its accompanying orneriness. Then we studied from our scriptures and included the class in a "companion study" asking them for input on what we should teach the people we would be teaching during the class.

We had Betty, a lady we are teaching, come in and play a real investigator. The kids did so great at teaching her and the other "lessons" we had. (Elder McKell and I played the other characters).

It was a lot of fun, and the Youth were pretty impressive, being so involved and actively engaged. It was sweet!

But my miracle for the week was when I looked out at the classes and realized that there were three kids in attendance who I taught and got to see baptized at different times on my mission. Now these three great youth were sitting there with glowing faces and nametags of their own, preparing to go serve their own missions. I cannot describe how this felt! Remembering what each of these kids were like the first time that I met them, comparing that to this moment. The Gospel of Jesus Christ really does change lives!

Maybe these kids will go on missions, and maybe not, but either way, their countenances and influence will bring others to Christ, even if it is their own children in just a few years, but this will continue to grow and spread until a couple generations down the road, there will be hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of exalted saints because of the faithfulness of great people who got a lazy Elder Bell out on his mission, who happened to be in the area where these three Youth were being taught, who grew up to serve their own missions and raise righteous families, and the miracle goes on and on.

How can this NOT be true?

                                                                 Love,

                                                        -Elder Ryan A. Bell

P.S. And then they gave us Great Harvest cinnamon bread.

Stay Outta My Town... Letter to Dad Apr 15, 2013

Pipidy, Papidy, Popidy,

Things are going well here, although, I really wish I could do better and getting things to go even BETTER. 

Sounds interesting with Mom's work stuff,  I know that she has been applying to all kinds of places. To be honest, if push came to shove, Houston's got probably the world's biggest collection of mechanical engineers.... so you could always come here...... just kidding, stay out of my town.

 

But the good news with that- and I tell you this in confidence, it's one of my mission secrets, come closer to the screen.......... come closer........... a little closer......................... hi.

 

Just kidding, but seriously, every Christmas, the Church gives a special gift to their employees, special edition books, or, if you know where to look, special edition scriptures. These scriptures are magnificent and they are extremely rare, they are a special Invecciato Italian Leather. They are a beautiful maroon, red, and the longer you have them and more you use them, the color actually changes and becomes more beautiful with time. Elder Jimenez had some and he and I would always scheme as to how we could get another set. I actually dreamed about those scriptures last night........ oh my goodness, I haven't changed.........

 

Yea, don't worry, we'll hang out some time, tease the cat, doorbell ditch Melinda's house, stand in Jordan's doorway and stare at him silently and invasively, and other such diabolical nonsense. Just a few more months of awesomeness until even more awesomeness.

 

Love you, my man! You are very right, in fact, I'm writing that quote down- "Things work out and miracles never stop coming to a faithful Missionary and his family..."

 

In this challenging time, you have Heavenly Father on your side because of your sacrifices and our faithfulness together in being a great missionary and family! This motivates me!

 

JINGLE-BAM!!!!!!!

 

                                                                                                  Love,

                                                                                      -Elder Ryan A. Bell

Thing's are a Blur.... Letter to Dad Apr 8, 2013

Your e-mail is the first that I have been reading today, I've been on here a while to print everything but have not had the chance to read or respond. Yea, sounds like Jordan is all kinds of back to normal and things with the group are just as feminine as ever. Get me out of there. Find me the furthest University you can away from that and ship me straight there! BYU and doing the AFROTC is sounding interesting to me. The pilots I have been talking to have highly recommended it.

Things are a blur this week. Conference was great! We got to go to the Temple and I went to the Mission Home for the monthly Zone Leader meeting. So it's been a great week. 

There are always tons of baptisms on the horizon, it's just getting them in the dang atmosphere that's been proving difficult lately. Maybe they will all happen at once and slam us. Who knows!

Giving away the computer..... not going to make it........ tell my wife....... I love her.

Just wanted to be dramatic for a sec. Thanks for letting me do that.

Love you! You handsome man!

                                                                                                                         Love,

                                                                                                              -Elder Ryan A. Bell

Emily's Baptism and two 20-year old weirdos

Hi! I hope you had a great week!

One day, when I first got to this area, my companion at the time and I went to the computer center of our apartment complex to work on making a Ward list of one of our assigned wards. As we were working, a girl came in and we all did the usual, casual, "Hey, how's it going?" The whole, I acknowledge your presence and ask you a simple question about your life, but you just say "Good" and we both go on with our day kind of thing.

As we were working, we had some casual conversation. I don't know how it happened, but SOMEHOW we ended up telling her a little bit about The Book of Mormon and asking her if she would read it. She said "Yes." Neither one of us had an extra copy on us, so I gave her my little red military Book of Mormon to borrow until the next day when she said she would call us and we would give her a copy of her own. We taught her the Restoration right there. Well, we went on our way, and I did kind of miss my little boomerang Book of Mormon, but we survived. (My little red boomerang Book of Mormon is the last picture)

The next day, we get a call, and it was this girl! We met up with her and taught her again!

After a lot of work, prayers, faith, and candy- she is the girl in the second to last picture and that was taken at her baptism on Saturday. Her name is Emily Marie Little.

Her family is not very cool with her conversion and she has struggled with a lot of issues at home because of her new faith. But she has impressed me many times with her strength in doing what she came to know is right and true. Thankfully, she was baptized into a ward who came to love her and many of them have adopted her (So to speak) into their own families.

I am thankful for the chance to have met Emily, seen the progress she has made, watched the change in her life, and then get a God-given glimpse of what her life can be and become if she is faithful, compared to where I saw it going when I met her.

This is such a testimony to me that Heavenly Father is a personal Father, very much involved in the lives of each of His children. The fact that at this specific time in an 18 year old girl's life, when she was about to enter the world unprepared, He would put her in the very same room as two 20-year old weirdos who had no idea..... about anything, but happened to be carrying the exact message that this girl would need.

Can I just end by telling you that I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the World. After carrying the weight of the world, EVERY sin, sorrow, or infirmity you, I, or anyone else has ever felt; He died and rose again the third day from the tomb. This, I now know for myself, and it has been etched onto my soul by the Holy Ghost in a way that can never be denied, a witness more powerful than sight.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

                                                              Love,

                                                       -Elder Ryan A. Bell