Transfer! Sort of...

Elder Bellomy got "transferred"...sort of. He is still living in the same appartment and is working in the same ward — the Sugarland 1st Ward.

The big change is that he has been given a new assignment. He is no longer the Assistant to the President. After seven months, he is back on the bike and spending his days focusing on missionary work.

The other cool news is that he is training a new missionary!

Introducing Elder Hesterman. In Elder Bellomy's own words, here is an introduction.

So, the Elder Hesterman break down. He is 19 from Sandy, Utah. He is the oldest of 3 boys. He plays the guitar and is exceptionally talented. He played in the Jazz band in high school and actually played at private parties with a few different bands. He went to Snow College in Ephraim and there he played Rugby. He is a hard worker, is very opinionated, and isn't afraid to talk or teach or bear testimony.

Now that Eldrew is no longer an Assistant, he seems to have the time to take a "P-day". His fist letter is longer than they have been. And, he said that he even had time to plahy some basketball!

Here is Eldrew's update for the week.

This was a week of ups and downs we had some great lessons and days and some more trying days. But regardless, life goes on and we are thanking the Lord in the good and the bad...for we grow during both times! The absolute highlight of the week was a lesson with a man named Jaime, a new investigator. He has a baptismal date for June 5th. He is super humble and as we taught him he understood and felt everything. We extended the date and he said He would definitely be baptized, if he came to know the book of mormon is true, he would be baptized. After that we started talking about the Holy Ghost and how he was going to recognize his answer and as he discribed how the Holy Ghost feels he said, "Kind of how I'm feeling right now". it was awesome. We also had a part member family at church for the 2nd week in a row. The member has been inactive for like 10 years and her kids aren't baptized and her husband (who is a hard nut to crack) is starting to warm up as he reads the book of mormon and comes to church. Joe and Damien have a baptismal date for May 29th. We did a lot of biking this week which has reconfirmed my love for the bikes. There just is no substitue. You talk to more people, you feel great and you have fun. I'm going to bike everywhere when I get home.

Next up, the Mother's Day call report! Stay tuned.I can tell that Eldrew really likes Elder Hesterman. They have a lot in common. I have also had the chance to have a great conversation with his Mom, Ashley. She is a convert to Mormonism and is from the South...so she is excited that her son is serving in a Southern state. I am going to post a photo as soon as we can find it on Susan's Blackberry.

Plaque

It is a tradition in many Latter Day Saint wards (congregation) to put up a plaque on the bulletin board for each missionary serving from the ward.

It has taken a while, but our congregation decided to put up plaques for our missionaries. This is a terrible photo, but here is Eldrew's plaque. (click to enlarge)

I confess that I've always found this tradition rather quaint...but I have been truely touched by this plaque.

Other missionaries serving from our ward are Elder Price -- Mississippi, and Elder Turner -- Japan.

As soon as I get a getter photo, I will replace this one.

Caught up. Looking forward.

Well...we are finally caught up on Elder Bellomy's mission blog. To friends and family who have lived throught the drought...we hope this has not been too much in too short a time. We have been catching up by writing in as-if-in-real-time. I hope this still captured the spirit and flow of his mission. For us, it is almost like reliving this portion of his mission.

Going forward we will keep everything up to date.

At dinner tonight, we talked about the time Elder Bellomy has left. We are amazed. He has about four months left...where has the time gone. Yet, he has so much left to accomplish and grow. The interesting thing is that we don't really know exactly when he is coming home. It will be sometime in September.

The other BIG news is that we get to talk to him next Sunday for Mother's Day. This is the last of the four times we get to phone him. Wow! The next time after that we we actually talk will be at the airport.

Our mission now will be to support him, keep him focused, and not cause him to become distracted thinking about coming home. Now is the time to sprint across the finish line.

A touching letter from Elder Bellomy

No commentary this week. I'll just share Elder Bellomy's email.

----------------------------------------------------------------

This passed week Elder Bayles and I had a companionship study which makes the first part of this email, really a preface to my email, necessary. We had a conversation about our families. I remembered how the best day of my week before the mission was Sunday. I remembered how I used to pull up after church or after being with my friends to see Spencer and Elizabeth's Sonata parked out side with Adam's car right next to it. I remembered how warm and happy it made me feel to be with my family. It brought tears to my eyes to think about how I can be with you all forever. Through the Priesthood of God, our family has been bound together. It is powerful motivation to always stay pure. So I may stand spotless before the judgement bar of Christ and be let into Celestial Glory through His infinite mercy and grace, after I have exerted everything I have keeping true and remaining on the path.

Long story short, I love ya'll. I am so thankful to you for all that has been given to me. Support, love, finances, everything to get me out here and keep me here. YOU DO SO MUCH, I can scarcely summon adequate gratitude to pay you back. I am sorry I have been a terrible pen pal. I am going to be better!

Okay. Now that I have recanted, I can give you the news:

This week was a week of ups and downs...like most weeks and days in missionary work. We had an awesome week in our area. We found 2 new investigators, we have some awesome investigators, and we have been doing a lot more in our area than the weeks before. One of our investigators name is Andy Chen. Andy Chen is the husband of a woman from mainland china. He is Chinese himself but was raised in the Bronx and Queens. His wife joined the church in Switzerland while going to school. They just moved into the area and we went by after they came to church together and announced to the ward in introduction "We are the Chens, I'm Ting, this is my husband Andy...he is not a member YET, but we will be married in the Temple in a year or so"...talk about bold. ha ha He is scheduled to be baptized this Sunday evening. We have an awesome relationship with him and it is awesome to see how he is coming closer to God and Jesus Christ through the Book of Mormon and through the help of the Holy Ghost.

I would say the story to my life right now is really hard to put into many words when it can so easily and appropriately be explained as a blur. Time is moving so fast. It was my birthday yesterday right? ...RIGHT? Transfer week is coming up this next week so I am getting pretty anxious to see what will happen with me next week. The crazy time is going to shortly begin...Busy, busy. ZLC...Ebenezer, etc, etc. :) But I love it.
What is another weird facet of my life is that I am going to start applying for school in the upcoming week. I think BYU is going to be my big sell. Not that I have been thinking about it but...Business Accounting undergrad and then onto law school. Corporate attorney here I come!

I love ya'll...I did a lot better this time, eh?

With love from Houston--

Elder Andrew Bellomy

Busy boy II.

Well...we sort of got after Eldrew in our email this week about the short letters and/or no letters. His big sister Elizabeth also sent him an email complaining. Her email included a sample email from another missionary that is very newsy and much longer than Eldrew's emails typically are. This resulted in this very, very long email home this week.

I'm sorry! It makes me feel terrible hear that my emails are too scanty in details, but I am so void of time that long emails aren't possible. This week is no exception. As you can see it is 5 o'clock our time and p day ends at 5, we still have a few more projects to get done. I haven't had a p-day in a long time. I love ya'll and hope you can forgive me for these week emails. I am doing well and the creditable coverage letter should be coming. They said they would mail it. Love ya'll!

But, you can tell that he is working hard. If he doesn't have a formal "P" day...then he is a very, very busy missionary. LDS missionaries typically get one day a week to take a break. Break is a relative concept for missionaries. The "Prep" day is for doing laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning, letter writing, reports, etc. On my mission (back in the dawn of time) missionaires had until about 5pm for prep day. That allowed some time for sight seeing or gathering with other missionaries to hang out. My impression now is that you have more of a Prep morning to get everything done. Even at that, Eldrew has so many tasks that they are giving up what little time they have to devote to getting the work done.

All I can say is, "keep up the good work Elder!"


We love Eldrew. For me (his Dad) his letters and occasional lack of a letter is just fine. I consider his mission an opportunity of a life time and is about working hard and serving the Lord. My teasing about long letters is just that — teasing. Others in the family...not so much. Long letters or short, he will get the chance to tell us all about his mission when he gets home. In the meantime, we know that he is healthy and happy.

Happy Birrthday Eldrew.

Eldrew turned 21 on April 6th. We sent him a package with some LDS music...and a BYU shirt. It amazes us that he is planning on going to BYU. When he attended the University of Utah before his mission...he'd spit on the ground whenever "BYU" was mentioned. I guess you change when get older, wiser, and more mature.

As far as Eldrew's letter goes...we are back to the famine.

I did get the package. Thank you so much! I love ya'll a ton. We are really swamped with work today so I am sorry this will be short! I love you and am doing well! Have a great week.

At least we know he is alive and well on the occasion of his Big 21!

Transfer announcement (not Eldrew) and THE WRECK.

Why he hasn't been writing. (Same old, same old.)

 I apologize for not sending the newzy emails I should be sending...These passed two weeks have been crazy!!!  Transfers tied us up, then it was moving the mission office (not home), and then it was ZLC, and then, and then, and then... ha ha Those are my excuses! 

An unanticipated expense...a car wreck.

So...I tell you this not so you will freak out, but so that you know of some upcoming financial needs that will be rising. I am fine, I was not hurt, nor was my companion, but I got in a car accident last Monday. I was driving and right after an intersection, right after I was turned to check my blind spot I turned back and traffic was stopped at a point when I was not expecting it to be, so I turned the wheel, slammed on the brakes but I hit the back of a truck. It hardly did any damage to his truck but it got our truck pretty good. Long story short, I got a ticket and our vehicle coordinator said when all I said and done it will come to about 250 out of pocket for me. Which I just feel foolish about and I am so sorry because obviously it won't be coming out of MY pocket and I feel bad because I can't work to pay for it. So, I am sorry in advance. I am going to go to court and plea poverty because I don't make any money and I'll see where that will get me. But anyways, I'll answer your questions now.

New companion.

So there was a transfer in my area.  Elder Peterson is now a District Leader in the Richmond 1st and 2nd wards.  It is a very large area geographically and it is also extremely wealthy.  In that area there is only 1 apartment complex, the rest is ritzy homes with large plots of land.  My new companion is a Spanish missionary named Elder Bayles.  He is an all state middle line backer from Green River, Wyoming.  He is a stud, he went to BYU before his mission and practiced with the team before he came out on his mission.  He plans on playing football at BYU.  We are getting along great and we are really similar to each other, it's eerie.

Mission office move (Answering our questions about it.)

It went as well as a move can go. We actually moved the mission office, not the mission home. The responsibility to move the office was firmly placed on our shoulders, we just got a whole zone to help us. We moved it in 2 days and the office couples and missionaries are putting all the pieces together and unloading boxes.

Q. Where is your apartment in relation to the new mission office?

I don't actually know what my apartment address is, because I don't get mail sent there because I could get transferred and I don't want to tell people to send it other places and have mail for me where other missionaries can lose it...though, the chances of me receiving mail are slim! ha ha I don't write letters and as a result I don't get letters and any letter I would receive wouldn't be very interesting. Plus, I am in the office everyday doing something so the mail being sent there is really convenient for me. The mission office is now in the Eldridge chapel. I was in this chapel for 4 1/2 months when I was a Zone Leader in the Alief ward. It used to be the Richmond stake center so it had the stake offices, but they built a new building for the stake center with new stake offices so the church converted that section of the chapel into our mission office, it's pretty neat and it will save the church money! The mission home is about 15 minutes away from the office, President Saylin also has an office at his home so he has two interview places.

The mission is doing great!  When I started my mission we were the lowest baptizing mission out of the 3 in Houston.  Now, we are the highest.  In the America Southwest area (Which includes all of Arizona and New Mexico where the church is really strong) we are above average on all key indicators AND we lead the area with the most baptismal dates!  421 investigators preparing to be baptized!

Q: Are you teaching anyone?

The Chen family, brother Chen accepted a baptismal date for April 16th. It was awesome!

Random photo.
Eldrew sent this photo without any explanation of who the other missionary is.

(Commentary: Reporting how a mission is doing is always a somewhat odd thing. On one level, the number of baptisms is a concrete sign of the lives that are being brought to the Gospel — and the hard, faithful efforts of missionaries and members. Yet, it can come off as overly statistical and calculating. So, I take the above statistics as a measure of joy at the success rather than boasting or competitiveness.)Q. How is the mission going?

April 2...no news letter.

We are going through another famine period from Eldrew. A short, short email...then no emai...and this week's thin email:

Hey hey! This is going to be short, just a quick note really. Regarding the thing I was supposed to ask for, I know I asked for it because she verified my address and everything for it. I will call again on monday to take care of it. But I love ya'll, enjoy conference!

At least we know he'd alive and seems to be in good spirits.

(For what it is worth, the "thing" Eldrew is speaking of is a health insurance verification document that he needs to provide so we can fully insure him on Dad's health plan...we've been working on getting him to take care of it for months.)

Transfer week...no news yet.

A very short email from Eldrew this week (March 21). It is transfer week. We don't know if he is staying or going. He said he is very, very busy.
Eldrew did write to send his love. He sounds happy and busy.

Stay tuned for transfer news next week.

March 14. Birthday greetings from my son.

March 14th is my birthday. I am proud of all my children for all the things they do. I am proud of Andrew for his choice to serve a mission. It was wonderful to get a birthday message from Elder Bellomy. (I think someone reminded him...even though he didn't need reminding.

"Ahhhhh man....you robbed me of the pride of remembering. I was excited all this week for the chance to email because I actually remembered a birthday! I'm not forgetful or anything but I think I'd forget it was Christmas if the world didn't bring it up ha ha But...all is well. Happy Birthday Dad!"

Mission news.

My life this week has actually been a bit relaxed (relatively). No mission conferences, no leadership meetings, no transfers, no etc. etc. Just the regular things. We have transfers coming up this next week, which will be busy.

Reflections on time warp.

It is weird to think of this time in my mission. I heard a returned missionary joke when I at about 8 months in my mission that isn't as funny to me now as it was to me then. He compared a mission to a snow covered house....you set up a ladder on the one side and you make an arduous hike up the ladder for 6 months, then you walk up the slant and it seems to go a little faster and easier for six months, then you hit the peak and start sliding down the other side quickly for 6 months and then, free fall to the ground...for what seems like seconds. Elder Peterson and I have been together for 6 months and I feel like I have been with him for 2 months. Time is going so quickly, I am almost scared by it. ha

Misc. stuff.

I wish I had news to share with you, we don't...other than this...the mission office is moving locations officially March 25th. The new address is:

Texas Houston South Mission

ATTN: Elder Bellomy

602 Eldridge Road

Sugar Land, TX 77478

So, if you want to write Eldrew...and please do...this is the new official address.

Hmmm...maybe that is how we do it.

We jokenly complain about about Elder Bellomy's short letters home. He's actually done pretty well of late.

However, we may have stumbled onto a way to get him to write longer emails...don't write him. This week (March 7th) we had an email snafu...and our letter to him went to the wrong email box.

The reply to our missed email was this rather long and detailed email from the Elder:

Wow! A taste of my own medicine! ha ha I'm kidding. I do appreciate any email I recieve and the quick to read bullets! That makes my email time fly by. So, not much has changed from Friday other than the dust is settling down. We don't really have anything big on our plates until the transfers. Which are 22 March. I can't say whether I'm staying or going...time will only tell. As soon as I take more pictures I will send pictures. With the usual amount time I have to email, I will tell you a neat story from this week. I'm not sure where it is going to go but it was pretty cool. I was on exchanges with one the of the zone leaders in my area this Saturday and it was about 2 o'clock and our appointment called and cancelled so we decided to go get a few contacts somewhere. We had already been to the Walmart parking lot to talk to people, so we couldn't go back there and there is a severe scarcety of places to contact people in sugarland because we have been kicked out of so many places. As we were driving there was an apartment complex that kept coming into my mind so we decided to go there (which didn't make sense because I had been to that apartment complex only once and we left quickly because there was no one walking around AND our next appointment was in 30 minutes so we were going to need to leave in 20 minutes). I looked at the missionary I was with and said, "I don't know why we're here, but I feel like we should be here" So we went to go knock on a few doors. When we got to the first door, Elder Breeze realized we didn't have our scriptures on us and I agreed with him that it would show a lack of faith to not be prepared to be let in, so we went back to the car to get our backpacks. We then began knocking. We got to our 6th door and we started talking to the man and he let us in. We only had about 10 minutes at this point, so explained our purpose as missionaries and told him that we were going to talk about something important to the restoration of the gospel and said a pray. Then we taught the book of mormon. As we were winding down the lesson, Marcus (the man) said, "can I be honest with you?" We said, "yes please" and the began, "To be honest, all my life I have hated mormons. I didn't know why you were doing what you were doing! When I'd see you on your bikes I'd want to run you over with my truck. But 3 weeks ago, my father in law came to stay with my family. He's one of your brothers. He told me what you told me today. I realized that you are doing a great thing. I'm going to read this book cover to cover. I have never once seen you in my complex before and it just happens to be a time when I'm home and when I'm reading my bible too, this is not a coincidence." It was really cool. Hopefully he progresses!


Well, I love ya'll!


Elder Bellomy

And, we love you too Elder Bellomy!

Busy boy!

No word from Eldrew on Monday...but got the following email on Friday:

Family!

So, once again...I know I'm a broken record...but I have very little time on my hands. We had a really busy week this week which started on preparation day...so I didn't get to email. This email is going to be brief. BUT...the rule on attaching pictures is no longer a rule (I didn't know when I sent those pictures before...opps.) So I can send you pictures. So, since a picture paints a thousand words...i'm writing WAY more than usual!

This week.

Monday: Putting together the Ebenezer, our mission newsletter. It needed to be ready for distribution on Tuesday. That was a project.
Tuesday: ZLC/Leadership meeting. That was a stressful event. But really good. The mission's vision is being lifted.
Wednesday: Preparing for our mission conference on Thursday.
Thursday: Mission Conference...160 missionaries...enough said...
Friday: Running around getting the beginings of transfers set up and doing some things for President.

Well...I love ya'll!!!

Now for the photos...be sure to click to view a larger image.


Houston Temple


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Not sure...but I think this is the Zone Leader Conference.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I think this is Elder Bellomy, Born and his companion.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Elder Bellomy with President Saylin and Elder Peterson

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Presents under the old Christmas CHAIR???

Eldrew's ongoing facination with glasses. (Who knows?)

Nice to get photos...this was a GOOD letter week. (Even if it was a little late)

February 14 letter home.

I will attempt to recreate Eldrew's letter home this week.

Happy Birthday MOM!!!!!

Last week was so crazy I didn't have time to think about all the things I needed to say in my email! I love you so much and am really excited to see your smiling face in about 7 months (not a trunky comment). Congratulations on a fantastic job in your work and with the gala event!

The questions of the week...(cut and paste, please and make sure to answer!!!)
How are things for you? They are good. Everything is just really busy. We are trying to keep lots of plates spinning! ha ha
How is the work going? The work is going well. We have had 4 investigators at church this last sunday...Still chugging away on some old investigators. We have found some cool people lately. There is this one man named Glen. He lived in Riverton for 17 years but recently moved back to Houston due to a divorce. His Ex wife and kids are still in Utah. He is familiar with the church and really enjoyed the first lesson we shared with him. He accepted a baptismal date for later this month.

What are you and your companion doing these days? The same old...ha ha

Are you excited to spend another month together? Yeah...6 months together! Can you believe that?

What are the prospects that you will be transferred to serve in the field at some point? They are really high...I'll be in Sugarland for a little while longer ( i think) and after that I'll go out and be a normal missionary again.

Any interesting stories from the other missionaries? Actually, I heard a good one that other day...actually on Saturday I heard it from Elder Born. ha ha Yeah...I was on exchanges with Elder Born. I was training him to be a Zone Leader. When we make a missionary a Zone Leader we go on exchanges and then sitdown with them for 3-4 hours and train them on their responsibilities and the spiritual things they need to learn. It was a neat experience.

How is the tooth doing? Which tooth is it? Was it the result of you not taking care of your teeth? (You checked out okay before you left.) No...I brush my teeth! ha ha it was my filling...it was old and so food could get in. It is doing great, no pain, no nothin'!

That's all from Elder Bellomy this week...more in the next post.

He's baaaaaacccckkkk!

After missing last week...we heard from Eldrew again this week. News from Houston...

No transfer.
Elder Bellomy and Peterson are together for another month. That will mean six months together, and counting. Elder Bellomy really enjoys being with Elder Peterson. He thinks very highly of him. In fact, this is the longest companionship Eldrew has had and the longest he has been in a single area on his mission.

Stake Conference.
I guess the Stake (Mormon lingo: An eccesiastical unit similar to a Catholic diocese.) held one of its two annual meetings. All the local LDS congregations attended. This one was different in that (from what Eldrew describes) some of the speakers were broadcast in from Salt Lake City. Eldrew says he was inspired by the concept of faith and works as it relates to missionary work. He also enjoyed the "common thread" of the conference about focusing our lives on what "God thinks of us and not on what others think."  It increases our capacity because we are relying on God.

First hint of post mission life.
Eldrew has about six months left on his mission as of the writing of this blog entry. We've been wondering what his plans might be...but have not wanted to ask. We want him to be completely focused on the work. Up to now, Eldrew has NEVER mentioned any thoughts on his post-mission life.

Susan subtly suggested to Eldrew (in this week's email) that he might consider coming home a few weeks early so he could start the university semester.

Elder Bellomy responded very strongly that he's NOT coming home early. However, he did drop ha hint about his intrerest in becoming an going to BYU in 2012 and choosing law as a profession. (Very interesting.)

Jan 30th...no letter this week.

We waited all week...but no word from Eldrew.