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.

The day after Christmas.

The regular Monday email came the day after Christmas. I guess Eldrew didn't see the need for a long email. But this email had some news...

So, we had like 2 or so minutes to email this week so I was just going to say a few informational things. I'm thinking I need glasses. There is a member in the mission who gives free eye exams which will save me like 80 dollars on that. He'll give me a prescription and then at Walmart they have these $12 frames I liked and they said it'll cost like $38 dollars total. So I'll pay out of my tax return money. I love ya'll!

That, by the way, is the entire letter this wek.

Given all the years of Eldrew wearing fake, goofy glasses...we tremble to think what he will choose...or what he can choose for $38.

December 13. Touching his heart.

First the news...Eldrew didn't get transferred.

After a week where we didn't hear from Eldrew, he sent a long letter.

He shared a story of how his mission, under the direction of his Mission President are trying to apply hard work and faith to find and to bring people to the Gospel before the end of the year.

As Assistants to the President, Elderw and his companion don't get as much missionary time as other missionaries. In fact, Elder Bellomy reports that he and his companion are very busy with Zone Conferences, Mission-wide meetings, Christmas activity planning for the Mission, and TWO transfers this month. It seems that missionaries going home this month were given the choice of early December (be home for Christmas) or after Christmas (spend one last Christmas on their mission).

Anyways, Elder Bellomy and his companion have been striving to contribute to their mission's efforts to find, teach, and bring people to the gospel. Elder Bellomy shared this experience:

Elder Peterson and I were praying to find someone. We had gotten a referral from the spanish missionaries a week before that we couldn't find. It was a bad address. But...while walking through another complex in the area we saw a familiar apt number. We knocked on it and ask for Ashley Hale. It was he. He said he was busy that day but said he would come to church (a day he would HAVE to come to for baptism on the weekend in white). He came. and he loved it. We went that night and taught him, extended a date for baptism for December 19th, the evening of his third time at church. He jumped up and wrote "baptism" on his calendar. As we left his very humble and run down apartment, smelling of cigarettes, Elder Peterson and I were full of faith that the Lord had provided a miracle. Though we knew this would be no easy task, it was well within the realm of reality for a work so guided by God..


Brother Hale has lived a hard life. He was born into wealth, being the son of a father whom inherited a great fortune. His father didn't work and spent his time drinking and doing drugs. Ashley was often beaten by his father and ran away frequently. As he grew older, he turn his life into one of drinking and partying. Realizing the hollowness of the party life he changed his life around leaving only one vestige of his past life-- his heavy addiction to tobacco.

Brother Hale smoked 40 self rolled cigarettes a day. We taught him the word of wisdom 2 days after we met him...knowing he had one week to be through with it. That night he gave us half of his tobacco and coffee. The next day he made a plan of how he would quit by the 12th, the next day he made a numerical goal, the next day he called and told us of how his desire to smoke had curbed dramatically. Friday came around and he smoked 26 cigarettes. That night we talked about miracles, about baptism, and about priesthood blessings. He counted out 13 cigarette papers, grabbed just enough tobacco for 13 cigarettes and then put his ash tray and remaining papers and tobacco in a bag for us to through away. The last 13 cigarettes of his life--Saturday's ration. We gave him a Priesthood blessing. The single most spiritually powerful blessing I have ever been a part of. There was such a feeling of God's love and power. When I annointed I felt as if an agent for God as I stated the authority I acted under. Brother Hale told of the immediate change he felt in his clarity and physical strength. He said he felt the spirit. Tears welled up in my eyes as we made our way to the dumpster to through away Brother Hale's sacrifice to the Lord. Given with a willing heart and a contrite spirit.

Brother Hale came to church yesterday. He loved it again. Brother Hale is going to be baptized on the 19th. I know the Lord loves His children, for if He didn't, I wouldn't have been so blessed to be out here in this work. Words can't express how these months have changed me. This work is a work of miracles

As a former missionary, I (Eldrew's Dad) can relate to the faith-building experience of seeing someone turn their life around. If all goes as planned, this will be a wonderful Christmas for Brother Hale!

(Christmas) green with envy.

Letters home:
Elder Bellomy's emails have been arriving on time, but are awfully short. Hence, not a lot to write about.

Here is the last email home:

I know I sound like a broken record...but...we have tons to do today. I have a talk I have to prepare for our Zone Leader Council tomorrow and it is proving to be a very hard subject. So, I will give you the low down of thanksgiving. We were well taken care of. Our ward mission leader had us over. He was for a long time the VP of finance at a big oil company. They had tons of good, traditional food. Then we went to see a family named the Crossgroves. We taught a lesson there and they filled us up with 2 plates each and a plate of dessert to share. She is from Louisiana so it was cajun. Spicy turkey, cornbread stuffin and dirty rice. Mmmmm. so good. We then went and taught some more lessons other places. We have to stay busy on thanksgiving, it's not a day off. :)

Eldrew sighting.
We confess to be a little green (Christmas green) with envy. We got a real-time Eldrew sighting report this week.

We emailed Sister Saylin with some details on Christmas packages. She was kind enough to respond with an email reply and share with us that she'd been with Elderw at a Christmas dinner the night before with the senior missionaries...and that he was in the office at the very moment when she was responding to our email. It was really cool, and sort of strange to get an email from someone who was interacting with Eldrew during the moments we were getting the email. Needless to say, we were excited, happy...and yes...a little envious...that she gets to see and talk to Elder Bellomy. Most of all, we were very happy to read her kind words about Eldrew.

Just 23 days until we get to talk to Eldrew on the phone. Now that will be a real-time experience.

Mormon corner:
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, here is a Thanksgiving message produced by the LDS church.



This Thanksgiving Day, as our family gathered around the table and each spoke of the blessings we are thankful for...we thanked the Lord for Andrew. Our son, brother, and inspiration. We are grateful for his spirit and light. We are thankful that he is well taken care of and that the Lord has watched over him.

Meet Elder Peterson.

No email from Elder Bellomy this week. So, we'd like to introduce you to his companion...

Introducing Elder Peterson.
We were kind of sad yesterday that we hadn't heard from Eldrew...when we received a sweet email from the the Hulet family in Texas. The mail included a photo of Elder Bellomy and his new companion Elder Peterson. (Click image to enlarge.)

Elder Peterson (left) Elder Bellomy (right)

Sister Hulet included this kind message about Elder Peterson and Eldrew:

We have had the lucky opportunity to have your sons at our home. We love the spirit they bring into our home! The last two times they have came, they talked to us about the Holy Ghost and it is so amazing to listen to them. Thank you for sharing them with us. I hope that one day my children can be as awesome of missionaries as they are!

The email was as good as hearing from Eldrew himself. Thanks Hulets!

The email was sent to Elder Peterson's parents as well. So, we got the chance to email them and introduce ourselves and exchange emails with them. Double thanks.

Eldrew?
For newcomers, it might be a good time to explain "Eldrew." It is our nickname for Elder Bellomy:

• Elder Andrew Paul Bellomy...
• Elder Andrew Bellomy...
• Elder Andrew...
• Elder Drew...
• Eldrew...

Mormon Corner.

This week, we'd like to introduce you to Alex Boye. 

He is a professional musician, and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Interestingly enough, my wife and I had the chance to meet him this week. Susan (Eldrew's mother) directs the marketing and business operations for CenterPoint Legacy Theatre. CenterPoint is a new regional community performing arts center under construction in Centerville, Utah. The theatre is going to be a state-of-the-art performance center with a 540-seat main theatre and a 250-seat black box theatre. You can read about the theatre here: CenterPointTheatre.org. The theatre will be having its grand opening in January, 2011. (Please excuse the shameless plug for the theatre.) Alex was on one of the facility tours last week. That's how we met him.

Click here to view the Alex Boye video.

Pretty cool opportunity. And, he is a very nice guy. Hopefully he will perform at the new theatre.
 
That's all for now. Stay tuned for more Eldrew news if we get a letter this week.

Hello home! A good week.

We got our weekly breath of fresh air from Elder Bellomy. He is doing well and is happy.

Hello home!


So, this week was a good one! The zone did great, my area did great, we had zone conference and moved our P-day to Tuesday so we could work on Labor day.

No weekly letter is complete without this promise:

I will get pictures and send pictures next week. Elder Bellomy Promise!

LOL...we will believe that when we see the photos.

One of Eldrews friends is serving a mission in Japan. Elder Turner is putting together a small photo album a way of 'introducing' themselves to people. I asked Eldrew if he thought this would be something he's like to do. He said:

Interesting about Mitch's mission. I've heard of that being done in Brazil and other foreign areas. I think it's because when you see a bunch of obedient, white kids they look like robots and you don't want them in your house. For us in Texas, everyone well knows us. In the more African parts we are called Church People or Preachers and in all the others we're the Mormons (angry and annoyed tone assumed and included). We strive hard to ask soul searching questions and teach with power and authority so they recognize us as servants of the Lord...I don't really care if they think I'm normal. ha ha

I guess that Elder Bellomy has been doing a little thinking about the time left on his mission and how he wants to serve.

I want you to look up a song and listen to it. It's an EFY song on 2005 track number 2. I think it's called "What will you do with the time that's left" It talks about life but I've been paralleling it to my mission. It's a great song...I've been thinking about it especially because 3 of the 4 district leaders [in the zone]are going home in 3 weeks. I love these great men...I couldn't help but cry when they bore their departing missionary testimonies in zone conference...No matter where we are in life or callings (or my mission), there is always time to make changes, repent and put it all on the altar. Like the song says, "What will you do with the time that's left? Will you give it all with no regrets?"

You can listen to the song here: Video: Time that is left

Here are the lyrics:

What will you do with the time that’s left
Will you live it all with no regret?
Will they say that you loved till your final breath?
What will you do with the time that’s left?

Oh, Hallelujah!
Oh, Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Amen

What will you do with the time that’s past?
Oh and all the pain that seems to last?
Can you give it to Jesus and not look back?
What will you do with the time that’s past?

Oh, Hallelujah!
Oh, Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Amen

What will He say when your time has come?
When He takes you into His arms of love?
With tears in His eyes will He say well done?
What will He say when your time has come?

Oh, Hallelujah!
Oh, Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
(Lord be present in all my ways,
help me follow You all my days oh Father God)
Amen

What will you do with the time that’s left?
Will you live it all with no regret
Will they say that you loved till your final breath?
What will you do with the time?


He finishes this week's letter with the following:

But, I wanna say I love you two very much and hope everything is going great. I love ya'll!

Busy times.

We were correct. Elderw sent his letter today.

Busy boy:
In the letter he describes how busy and stressed he is at the beginning of each month. In addition to all the missionary work he is doing...and wants to accomplish...he has three additional activities this week — Zone Leader Council Meeting, Stake Correlation Meeting, and District Leader Council meeting. Of course there is a lot of planning and preparation for these meetings. Eldrew also got to pair up with Elder Peterson who is one of the missionaries who is an Assistant to the President for what is called an 'Exchange." This is in a different area and a different missionary than his usual area and companion. This switching up is a training opportunity for Eldrew.

Eldrew seems to be very happy and is taking the extra assignments in stride. He is very grateful for Elder Mulitalo who is working hard with Eldrew over the holiday to put in extra effort. Edrew reports that even with all the extra duties, he and Elder Mulitalo were able to reach all of their goals.

Tropical Storm Hermine:
I asked Elder Bellomy about the big storm...he reports that the mission car was damaged:

Tropical storm huh? Now that you mention it, our car was tipped over when we walked outside today...We thought it was vandals... We must have slept through the whole ordeal. ha ha jk.

(I don't think we will get a real storm report until next week.)

Passing the Sacrament:
He also had this to report on the progress of two recent converts and their progress in the Church...

This last Sunday was also a special one for me. Abraham and Steven, our recent converts, passed the Sacrament for the first time. There was some bumps along the way but they were happy with themselves after. It's helping them grow. The mission has seen me look at the Gospel in a whole new way. Before, the church as something you just do... and the doing was the end result. For example, you read to read, or pray to pray, come to church to come to church...I didn't see really why we do all those things. It's not just the doing, it's the testimony and knowledge we grow.

That 'year' thing:
I also asked him if now that he has been out on his mission a year if he needed anything...replacements...new shoes...etc. He commented on the whole year thing:

In response to the Year mark thing...That was weird. I was too busy for the fanfare. I've heard you're supposed to burn a shirt. That's a retarded thing to do, so I didn't do it. ha ha.

I date however I feel is more important than my one year anniversary of my departure is the date of September 6th--yesterday. In one year I will be stepping off a plane on the 6th of September ha ha. Weird.

Gratitude:
Besides the blessing of Eldrew serving a mission, our entire family has been blessed this year. So far, we are weathering the recession, Adam and Lindsay's wedding, Spencer graduating from grad school, Sarah turning 18, Sarah graduating from high school and going to college, our first grand child, and an empty nest! We mentioned to Eldrew all the blessings we are having and that we are praying for him and his health, safety, and success. He replied:

Well, I wanna let you all know that I love you. And I pray for ya'll as well.

The name of the game lately for me and I think for our family is gratitude. We have been blessed with so much and the Lord deserves the get the props! I love ya'll, bye!

(Did you catch the double "ya'll"? He really has down South for a year!)

It is good to see him happy, working hard, and positive. The Lord is watching over him and blessing him. More to come next week.

He's going to get soaked.

We did not hear from Eldrew yesterday. He usually writes home from a public library computer. Since yesterday was a holiday, we suspect that their prep day gets shifted and thus we get delayed emails.

So the only news so far this week is not from Elder Bellomy...but from the weather. Tropical Storm Hermine is coming ashore Southwest of Houston.

As you can see, Eldrew is no where near the center of the storm. Even so, they are predicting that the Houston area will get between 2" to 3" inches of rain in the next two days.

We'll see if he mentions the storm in the next email we get from him.