Adventures of Big Bird and Whitebai Inbox

  May 26, 2025

    Good Afternoon, and welcome to another episode of storytime by yours truly.  This week was a good one!  It was also transferred, meaning that the power couple of Elder Big Bird and Elder Whitebai has now been split up.  It had a good run, but now it's time for Elder Big Bird and Elder TALL to have some adventures!  I'll be staying here in Guyana for another transfer, and I could not be more excited!  I love it here, and my adventures are not yet done.

     This week, I have another story about some of our friends that were baptized this last weekend.  They are an incredible couple that came from Cuba to Guyana about 3 years ago.  They came here looking for a better life and found themselves struggling to feel the Lord's hand in their lives.  They began attending several churches and joined a few.  But with time, things stopped feeling right, and they left those churches, leaving behind many hopes of the Gospel.  

     Fast forward a year or so, and a certain Elder Big Bird and Elder Whitebai were frustrated, not sure where to go, and chose to stop by a Facebook referral down the street.  Opening the door was Dalay and Guillermo, who opened the door and invited us straight into the house.  After about 5 minutes of speaking with them, they looked at us and said, "We feel something special. Where is your church?"  And they showed up to church, felt the spirit, and asked us how they could join the church.  With a baptismal date set for May, they progressed quickly and took every invitation given.  At one point, Guillermo fell 4 stories out of a building during work at a construction site, and came to church 2 days after his surgery.  They were baptized this past weekend.

     I have never seen such strong faith before.  Dalay and Guillermo felt the spirit, and they followed it through everything.  Faith is such a powerful concept.  Faith literally can move mountains, and if we allow it to, it will change our lives forever.

     A few things before I go.  I learned how to drive in Guyana this week.  Let me tell you, it is a new level of fun.  We drive on the left side of the road here, and you have to watch out for a few things:

   1. mini buses:  the drivers are drunk, and the racing stripes mean business

   2. The pot holes: not the kind of pot you want to smoke at 60mph

   3. The cows man.  They are everywhere.

     I love you all! I hope you have a wonderful week!  Keep the faith, keep the love, and keep serving the Lord and others in all that you do!

- Elder Aldrich

1and2. Dalay and Guillermo

3-end. I love my zone

Wins and Losses

May 12, 2025 

    Goooooood whateverpartofthedayitis! It has been quite the week again! I am loving my time out here in Guyana... It's crazy, I've already been in Guyana for a month. This week was a week filled with wins and losses, some of them fun, and some of them well... not so much. For starters: Brain Cells. I'm about all outta those this transfer. My companion and I, bless his heart, have the same sense of humor, which means that we quite literally think we are the funniest people in the world. Top that off with a 6-man apartment filled with funny guys, and you have quite the line-up. But I can't complain, so that's a win too.

          Our Recent Convert Ran Away 

     Oooooo yeah. Our recent convert is back in the bush. The interior. The Amazon-hecken-rainforest. But bush is easier to say, so let's go with that. Storytime! Vernie, our beloved recent convert, managed a gold mining company, but ghosted her boss so she could get baptized. Sick. But that leaves one problem: no job. So she searched for a while and found a job that would allow her to work during the week, with Sundays off for church. Win. And her 3 kids also want to be baptized. Quadruple win. But on Tuesday morning, while confirming appointments, we call Vernie. She answers the phone with questionable music in the background. She says, "I'm going back to the interior. I'll explain when I get there."  She did not explain.  Fast forward another day or so, and she lets us know she will be in the interior for the next 3 months. Eeek. Our recent convert is "lost in the woods," as our favorite Disney Prince would say.

          Cows

     That's right. The cows are back. But in a much better fashion than before. Cows seem to be the bane of existence. Whenever you think you won't see a cow, Boom, there it is. But you know where you can't find cows? Supermarkets. 

      Cinco de Mayo, the greatest holiday in the world, is mostly caused by Star Wars. But Cinco de Mayo is also like a secondary "Taco Tuesday." One of the only American members in the branch had a taco party at work, and took all the leftovers and gave them to us. Guys, I found a cow in my fridge for the first time since coming here. We had beef tacos, take that Cows.

     The last few weeks, I have been reading a book called "To Draw Closer to God" by Henry B. Eyering, and one of the big things that it has covered is repentance and the importance of it. All of us are sinners, and as sinners, one of the biggest questions that we can have is: How do I know if I have been forgiven? And the answer that he gives is a rather interesting one. He turns us to Alma 5:26-31, it's a lot of words, so I'll let you look it up if you want. But he breaks it down into 4 key aspects: Humble, stripped of pride, stripped of envy, not making a mock of thy brother. He proceeds to recount a story of a young man who had gone through a long repentance process and was still unsure if he had been fully forgiven by God. And the answer was that it was through the little things he did that gave him his remission of sins. The little things are the ones that change the heart. Remember that repentance comes from sincere desire and a broken heart. A heart willing and ready to change.

Sandwich

Weekly planning

Guyana

Pray For Guyana... And the Cows

 May 5, 2025

   Good Morning, lovely people! What a week it has been! Guyana has been struggling a little bit the last week or two. A little girl was murdered, which led to lots of protests and riots. Please keep the country and people of Guyana in your prayers. 

     But nonetheless, we were able to have a good week. Driving here in Guyana still throws me off, but I'm on a bike, so I get to throw myself through the chaos; it's an unexpected thrill! One of these emails will include me in a trench, but that day is not today! 

     Guys. There are cows here. Cows everywhere. I don't know how to explain the sheer amount of cows in this country. I swear, any time you look anywhere, it is a cow or a goat. I love it! Keeps you on your toes! 

     Let me tell you a story about a friend of ours named Vernie. She was scrolling on Facebook one day and found the Come unto Christ Facebook page. She added it and soon was in contact with the missionaries. Unfortunately, she had to go into the interior (gold mining land) for a few months. Contact was lost, but her testimony continued to grow. As soon as she got out of the interior, she got back in contact with the missionaries, looking to be baptized. Fast forward 2 weeks, and she was baptized. As she continued to grow her testimony, her children began to see the changes that she was making. Soon, her children wanted to follow suit and wanted to feel all of the joy that is felt in the gospel.

    Often, things come with time. It almost never comes at once. Change starts with one thought, thought turned to action, and actions to change lives. As a missionary, I have seen lives change, pains fade, and wounds heal. Christ is the healer of all pains and the beginning of the most beautiful things in life. His plan and his timing are perfect.

     I love you all. I am having the time of my life out here, and it's hard to believe my time is almost halfway over.

Cows