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

There can be miracles, when you believe. Waffle Crisp is back....

Hey.

 

Someone get me Alba's e-mail address. I miss that woman. Make it snappy.

 

Here's a story- I am training a new missionary now and during his first week here, we get a call from a member in Oklahoma who is coming here to Katy, TX to visit a friend, and her friend wants to hear the discussions. So we go to teach this lady and her husband is not very happy about it. He gets a little confrontational, but still somehow the Spirit was able to be there to get through the lesson. I had told my companion that he gets to invite her to be baptized at the end of the discussion and he did it! And she said yes! It is one thing to have that happen to you, but it is another thing entirely to see that happen with a brand new missionary you are training. I know that the Holy Ghost is the real teacher, otherwise, that lesson would have been derailed long before we ever even approached a baptismal invitation.
 

And a personal miracle today- I was at HEB (the greatest grocery store but it's a Texas original) and low and behold, my eyes spotted a cereal called Good MOREning by POST (the cereal company). It was just Waffle Crisp with a different name and a bigger box! I BOUGHT IT!!! IT'S SO GOOD!

 

There can be miracles, when you believe. Waffle Crisp is back. You think I'm joking, but I am being 100% serious. My life may have just changed today.

 

And HEB always has 8th Continent Soymilk Vanilla. They ALWAYS have it! I'm never coming home.

 

 

                                                                                                                         Love,

                                                                                                               -Elder Ryan A. Bell

This week has been crazy! Letter to Dad March 18, 2013

Thanks for the e-mail! You are the coolest! I absolutely LOVED the box! Those Lucky Charms and beer bread have been a great staple for me the past couple of days. Sustenance is sweet! And I dig Thin Mints, so I was stoked to get those too! You guys do such good work!

This week has been crazy! Due to some stuff with Emily's parents, she will be getting baptized THIS weekend, March 23rd.

Thank you for being there for me with my future plans and goals. It means so much to hear that you and Mom are there to support me and help me to achieve them. I could absolutely not make it on my own with any of this.

So, in the mission right now they are trying a new thing with Zone Leaders. Since there are so many new missionaries and struggling missionaries, they have started splitting up Zone Leaders. So right now I am still a Zone Leader, but I am training a new missionary named Elder McKell while Elder Barhtolomew, my last companion is with a different missionary in another area, but he is still a Zone Leader as well. So it's interesting.

But other than that, Texas is AWESOME!!!! I am looking very much forward to your letter! YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!

                                                                                                                                                Love,

                                                                                                                                   -Elder Ryan A. Bell

I'M A LEPRECHAUN! Letter to Dad March 11, 2013

Hollow Pops!

It's yer son. I been waitin' a long time to type ye this. I'M A LEPRECHAUN!

This week has been awesome! I have felt so at peace after planning our attack on after mission plans. All things bright and beautiful. Thanks for all the work and research you have been doing!

Seriously, I would LOVE to live in St. George. That place just rocks, it is warm there so I will feel closer to Houston, there are TONS of mountains, I am a desert boy, and I could drive over to Nellis anytime I want to watch my homies. Provo's cool too... pretty sure they have mountains there. And I could still drive an hour or two and watch my brethren at Hill.

And I am definitely looking forward to some box-ness this week. It's been a while. St. Patrick's Day is the best!

I am sorry to be so short, I came to the computer intending to keep things short, but my mind is pretty well blank. This new e-mail rule makes me so excited I want to throw up with sheer joy.

And hey, this Church really is Christ's Church! He really does live and govern all of its affairs. He is involved in our lives and knows exactly what we need.

I LOVE YOU!

 -Elder Ryan A. Bell

Baptism!!

A couple that Elder Peterson and I taught back in Westlake a year ago got baptized on Saturday- Chris and Jenny Frizzell. Awesome stuff!

Oh yes, and as for the couple of baptisms coming up, Emily Little is set to be baptized on March 16th and we are very excited for that! She is 18 and after only knowing us for two weeks, made some brownies for the Young Women's bake sale and came and helped out. She is incredible and engaged very quickly! Then, Ryan Thomas, a 19 year old boyfriend of a member is doing ok in his progression, but we talked out a few plans and hopefully he will get more immersed in it. He is scheduled for March 23rd and as of yesterday is still willing to work towards that date.

There is one other scheduled baptismal date, an elderly lady named Betty Ebbinghaus who is the mother of an investigator. She accepted April 6th as her date, but I don't think she is EXTREMELY FIRM on that. She is still reading, praying and confirming. That day is her goal and we are working with her towards it. Besides those 3, we have several others who are close, a few who just came into the picture who are not so close, and then all the less-active and part-member families in both wards we are trying to visit with and teach.

Love, Elder Ryan A. Bell