Warm for Christmas

                                                      Happy Birthday Chase from Elder Chan

Ok so the news. I now have a new companion who is……. Elder D*! He is the Spanish Elder in some of my pictures at the start of my mission. Well I’m with him now. I’m also senior companion and my area doubled when I got it because the sisters left so they brought me their area book and said “here you go, talk with these people” (Don’t loose them or I’ll kill you) and all that good stuff. So I’m kinda white washing again. Yeah we are going to do great. The sisters have a great area and we will have a lot of people to teach with that now. We are excited and I know that me and Elder D* are going to do great.

Well things are doing good here. It’s really strange that it’s warm because it doesn’t feel like Christmas at all. Some people have lights but it’s just strange. I looked at my watch and was like wow it’s the 17^th. Christmas is really soon. It’s gone way, way fast so far. For those few days when I was waiting for Elder D* I was in a zone leader area with this way cool other Elder named Elder B*. We had a great time. He is a really good Elder and we really worked hard. They have a neat area. It’s like all Spanish. You have to look for white people so we kinda stand out there. Haha it was great.

Oh cool thing. We went to this dinner (me and Elder D*) and we brought this kid A* that we are helping come back to church with us. This family we ate with, oh they are the best, mom I think you would love the mom L*.  She is so funny and just kinda crazy but she knows it so that makes it ok. Ha but it was so fun and they really were nice to A*. We are trying to help A* family and L* family come back to church. They have both been less active for like 8 years or so so it’s time for them to come back.

Well I love ya’ll a lot and I hope you had a good week.

Love, 

Elder Birks

Change is good

Well it was really strange to send someone home. Right now I’m with an Elder who just sent his companion home as well so I’m not in my apartment or in my area but I will be on Friday. I really don’t have too much time today because stuff is crazy right now.

All is good. My ward is great. The fed us sooooo much food this past week we thought we were going to die but it was good food so that was nice. The members here are so great.

I’m glad to hear all is going good and I hope I’ll have some time to write another letter today but I have to go now so I love ya lots and I’ll write more soon.

Love,

Elder Birks

Great week!

Hey family! Well guess what? We had a great week! I will get to that really soon. First, thanks for the Christmas stuff. All the 24 days stuff and the decorations they have all been great. It was way hard at first to open a package and have it just be full or more and not be able to open all of them, but now I can open them so that’s been really good. The scriptures are fun with it too. They really help it mean more. I got the caramels from Gail’s family and those were way good. I have given several away to investigators and members because I realize that they are so good that they might get us in some hard doors, so thanks and they are great. It sounds like life is going on back in Utah. Is it cold right now because right now it’s getting hotter here and it’s really strange. Who knew I think I like snow but it is kinda cool to not feel cold in December and be in a short sleeve shirt.

Well for some of the cool stuff from this week. We had a great week finding people to teach. We found 9 new investigators! A lot of them are people with so much potential. It’s crazy. We have been having some great lessons in the last week and it’s just felt like some stuff is coming together. It’s kinda sad though; Elder B* is going to die (go home) next week. It’s really sad but life must go on. We have been getting to eat a lot of meals with members in the area here and it’s really helping us get some people to help us teach. When we go out we like to have a member with us because the lesson is always better with a member present and with how great our ward is they are really willing to come out and teach with us or to try and find with us. It’s been so fun.

We found this way cool part member family who haven’t come in 8 years and haven’t met with missionaries in a long time as well. We went by and just knocked on the door and were able to get in and just be with the family for like an hour and they were able to tell us a lot about why they stopped coming and all that. The best part was that they really want to come back. They have 8 kids that aren’t baptized and they know that it’s true so that one is just going to take some work with the members who are more active to try and give them people who they will know at church. They will do great soon. I’ll let you know more as we teach.

Well the work is going good. The people here are great and I think we have a lot of good things coming.

I love ya’ll a lot and hope all is good.

Elder Birks

Mission Office Address

Just in case anyone is wanting to send Elder Chan a letter or Christmas card, here is the Mission Office address.  I know he loves letters!

Elder Chandler Birks
Texas Houston South Mission
602 Eldridge Rd
Sugar Land, TX 77478

Thanksgiving

Well Thanksgiving was great. We got to eat with a really cool family and they were way fun to be with and there was so much food. It was really good.

We are doing all the normal stuff here and that’s been fun. There is a lot going on with the area. We are still just trying to find people to teach. I think that’s just the way it goes on the mission. We are always looking for more people and trying to help the ones we have to do better. The work of a missionary is strange and kinda funny. We are the people who are always looking to help people in the area and it’s great but so many people see us coming and have these false ideas of what we are. All we have to do is talk with them and they for the most part are like “hmmmmm I thought the Mormons were more crazy then this” or “They don’t pay you to do this?!” That’s a fun one. People don’t really understand what it is that we do and that’s why we are here. To help them out and it’s been fun to change people’s minds on who we are.

Well this week what’s been going on? Me and Elder B* wrestled! It’s fun. He is good but I’m bigger. 

Well, I’m still doing all my studies in Spanish so that’s going really good and I feel like I’m understanding more now and getting through a lot more in every study. It’s really fun to be able to understand people who are speaking a different language. It’s crazy to me. I’m not perfect by any means, which is one reason why I’m way nervous for what President told me. He said that he wants me to train soon. I don’t know how I feel about that but I know I will be ready if that’s what God wants for me. We will see if I kill my first child or not. Haha but yeah. It will probably be in January because we don’t have anyone coming in this month to train so God has given me a little time. Let’s see if I will be ready. Haha. Keep me in your prayers for that one. Well yep that’s been on my mind a little.

Yep Well I will make sure to do better with sending my letters on time. I’ve just been really bad at getting them off on time. I feel like I send all of them on Friday or something like that. I will work on that. Robynn’s package got here. That’s sweet. All the stuff is so fun and will be great to have and use. Haha, just kidding. I have no idea what it is. I take it that because they have dates on them I might have to wait to open it. But that’s cool. I’m pumped for them to come and I’ll look forward to the other two.

Well I love ya’ll a lot and I hope all is going good.

Love Elder Birks

Smile!

Hope you’re having a good day and if you’re not, smile. It really does help. I find myself doing that from time to time. We will be just riding on our bikes and I’ll just be chilling and I will realize that I’m not smiling and so I bust one out.  Suddenly I’m not just riding my bike, I’m happy to be riding my bike and I remember why I’m here and I can get back to work. I still think of the blessing I got when I first left and I know that that was from God and from Dad listening to the spirit. Thanks so much for that Dad.

Well yep, this has been a good week. We had kinda bad numbers but it’s ok. We will do better this next week. I got the chance to go out with a few members and man they are so great. It really is so much better to have a member in a lesson. It just blows my mind how much the Spirit is there when we have a member. We were with this member who is just awesome. He was so fun to go out with and I just heard he wants to move to Honduras. What’s up with that! But the work goes on. We've still got some time here with him so that will be sweet.

Well we have plans for Thanksgiving and it’s with a member family in the ward that I don’t know yet. But yeah it will be great.

I don’t have too much time so I’ll try to write you a letter but yeah I love all of ya.

Love Elder Birks

Peace out!!

Exploring in Houston

I’m glad to hear that the family is doing really well. Well things in the area are going really well. The members here are great and it just feels like there are tons of them. Our area has been really fun to just explore. We both don’t really know it all that well but we know where a lot of the Spanish are so that’s been really good. There are some really cool people that we get to talk to around here and there are people from all over the place. It’s crazy to me. There are different languages all over in this area and all I speak is Spanish and English. It’s really hard to OYM a guy from China, haha, but it’s been really fun. Elder B* is great and we get along really well. There is always fun to be had as we do the work. I know that I’m going to learn a lot from him and that’s great.

This week we had kinda cool things happen. We had like 4 of the people we talk to be really interested like they were telling us how interested they were (that doesn’t happen all that much like that) and that they really wanted us to come back. We will see where all that goes.

It’s also really funny here. There are a lot of people from South America that have like African descent so they are black but they all speak Spanish! It’s so cool to walk up to a guy who before I never would have thought could speak Spanish and then it happens and they know Spanish. It’s really cool.

Well I’ve been having a good time here with reading and doing all of my studying in Spanish now. It’s crazy and it’s been really cool at the same time because I feel like I’m learning all of it for the first time. It’s been really cool. I feel like I’m getting a new perspective on it. I also just started the Bible and I really love the Bible. Ya’ll should really try and read some of that because it’s great. There are just some awesome stories in it. Just start with the ones you know. Look for Noah, and for Jonas and the whale and all those and you will see what I’m saying.

I love to be able to answer people questions with the scriptures. It adds so much more power to what we do.

I really hope that all is well with the family.

Love Elder Birks

New Place!

Well I’m in a new area and yeah it’s crazy. I’m up in the city. It’s a new area too so we are doing what is called white washing. My new companion is great. His name is Elder B* and he is sweet! He speaks Spanish really good. It’s been crazy to be in a new place with a new companion but it is really fun. The area has a ward and it feels so big after having been in a branch for so long but it’s been good. There are so many people out here and man there are lots and lots of cars. Our area is way small. It’s like 2 miles by 3 miles and we are just on bikes (all the time!). It’s great and it’s been fun. It’s kinda funny here, there are a lot of areas that have apartments and we have to like sneak in. It’s way funny. We feel like we are just waiting to get kicked out of the places but we haven’t yet, so that’s been really nice but there are times that we feel like people really don’t want us there.

The area is brand new here like we have an area book and it’s empty, so it’s been really fun just to go out and try to find new people to teach. There are a lot of really cool people in the area though so that’s been really cool.

Mom with the question on what we did for Halloween we just try to hide from people it feels like. We needed to be in by 7 and then we were supposed to study but because the area is new we got a new apartment and had to unpack all of the stuff we had and that’s not too much stuff as it was. It was a really funny week just going around and trying to find the Spanish in the area. The work will be good here we feel but it’s going to take some work to do it but I’m pumped to get the chance.

So Elder B*, well his parents are from Mexico and they don’t really speak English so he grew up speaking both so he is a native. He is on his last transfer and he is a great missionary. The ward here just loves him. He has been in the ward for about 6 months and knows like all the people so that’s been really nice. He is from Oregon and yeah has plans to go back and go to school and all that good stuff. He is a really good soccer player/wrestler and is a really great guy.

Well I have to go. I didn’t add my address because we don’t know what it is and I forgot to check as we left. Sorry. Just send it all to the office and that will work perfect. It’s right by my apartment now so it’s not a big deal to get mail from there.

I love you all and am glad to hear all is going well.

Love,

Elder Birks

Ps I’ve started doing all my studies in Spanish! (and I understood like all of church this week.) Soon I will be speaking like a native, haha. Thanks for all your prayers and I’ll try and write you my address this week.

Transfers! I'm out.

What’s up my family? So I sent home my letters but they were way late so sorry about that. I’m getting transferred!! Ahahaah this will be fun I’m sure but I just have no idea where I’m going. Elder L* is dying (going home)so that will be sad but kinda cool. He might come by or email ya’ll at some point for pictures. Umm I don’t really know what to do with this new info. Elder S* is training so we found out that I would be leaving like 4 days ago. It will be so strange to leave. I really like this area and the people here but who knows. I could end up in the city. That would be strange and kinda cool but we will see. So if you just send mail to the mission office that will work best for now.

The GPS is being strange but I will keep working with it and trying to get it to work. We drove like 179 miles on Saturday! So much driving. Crazy stuff. If you look at the map we drove from Clute to a city called Wharton and then to a city called Church Hill and then home and around town after that. It’s a lot of driving and it was for a great cause because Elder S* is a District leader he can interview people who want to be baptized and all the people were just really far away. It was a long but fun day (good thing I have the Sansa!)

But yeah, then after that we went to a BBQ that this Methodist church was having. Some members of their church that really like the missionaries bought tickets for us and so we got to go. It was $10 per person and it was good and really funny. When we got out of the car (there were 4 of us) and walked into the church all the people looked at us. Haha it was great. The pastor lady was like bug eyed and trying to figure out who we were but she was trying to figure it out by looking at my name tag (that’s a bad idea for most people because it’s in Spanish haha ) so she looked kinda lost but she read Cristo and was like “Oh I like that”. It was great. We were like their trophy. They were like “Eat, and go walk around”. They thought that they had 4 new members, but nope. The food was good though and the people were really nice and it was just really funny. You could hear whispers and stuff and people would do quick glances and I would just smile and say hi. It was cool. They gave us food to take home! Great people.

I went on an Exchange with Elder S* (He is Samoan and is 6’6” and like 270 pounds). It was so fun. We went and would walk down the street and he would be just going and like everyone looks at him. Haha it’s so fun. I was walking on a big curb next to the sidewalk and we were about at eye level and I just kept laughing. He is so big and just fun. Great Elder. We will go home together actually then he plans to play football for BYU so that will be cool. But yeah, that was a fun transfer. We just worked on getting all of the area put together. It makes a big difference if you are organized. The Spirit needs order in order to guide us. If we just have a map on the wall how can He help us know who to visit? We must have PINS with names and numbers. I want to give the Spirit something to work with. So that was really fun though.

Well this week I realized how important it is to ask for faith and to ask in faith. Read Alma 22 and just look at the faith of the king. I see him as a person who has it all, money and things of the world and he is ready to give it all away in an instant, just to know that there is a God. I didn’t need to give anything away it seems to know that I have a God but do I treasure that knowledge? I challenge all of you to remember the blessing that we have been given to KNOW that there is a God, that He is the creator of all and that He cares for us. I’m looking for people here who have a desire to know more about God, to learn and to grow. I hope that all of you are doing well and that you are remembering your Father who is in Heaven and seeing His hand in your life every day because I know He is there and all we must do is look and we can see Him. I hear that is the blessing of becoming old, that we may look back and see God’s hand in our life.

I love you all and hope that all is going good. Sorry that it’s so long and full of randomness. But yep that’s what you get sooooo, peace out.

Love,

Elder Birks

It's True!

Handstand in the rain? Sounds like something Elder Birks would do!

(Short email today so I thought I would add some more pics from the memory card he just sent home. )


I got given a challenge by President to read the Book of Mormon 5 times before the end of my mission! That's a lot of reading and I don't read all that fast so I started doing that and lets see how far I can go. I think it will really help. Right now I'm in 2 Nephi and its sooooo good. Man all that stuff is written for us! There is so much that is about our people and our day and the things that we should be doing. I love the Book of Mormon. It's been so fun to have the time to just read and read and really get to know some of the crazy stories and stuff. I really hope your reading is going good because if it's not you're doing it wrong. Haha but it's true. All that is there is to help us and it will if we will only let it. We have people ask us all the time why we are doing this and all I ever think of is because it's true. Why else would we be here trying to give you a free book, and wearing what we do while on bikes and in the sun? It's all because it's true and it all depends on the Book of Mormon. I'm glad the bishop had me read it right before I came out. It has changed the way I teach, listen, and feel towards the people here. We bring a great and simple message to the people and the way they can know is in that book. I know it's true and I know that I will always be learning more as I read because thats the way it works.

Well, this has been a fun week. The GPS is really fun and helpful. This week has been going good. We just are trying to talk with everyone all the time. We had some really cool lessons this week and we destroyed our goal for how many lessons we would have. We wanted or had the goal for 6 and we got 11 and that was so cool. We really hope to find the fruit that is to come. Yeah. The work has been going well. We have a few people that we are looking to help right now and it just comes down to time. Like all the elders in the area think that I'm leaving in the next little while and we will see.

It's been a good one!

Elder Birks and Elder S*

Elder Birks and D*

Elder Birks and Elder S*

What’s up family!! Well I’m doing really good. The work has been really fun and I’m really excited for things to come. 

  

Well life here is going good. The members are so great down here. We are really small but we have a lot of cool people. We had a funny Sunday this week. We had two people come from the Stake to speak to our branch and of course they don’t speak Spanish so Elder S* went up just to stand by them and translate from the pulpit, but the funny thing was that both the people had never been translated before and so they didn’t get that when they stop to let Elder S* translate they have to let him actually talk before they start up again. There were like three times when the lady would say something then look at Elder S*, smile and start talking again. Haha. It was great. I was glad it wasn’t me up there. But we made it through and all went well.

We have had some really fun stuff happen. Elder Echo Hawk from general conference came and spoke to us. (He is one of the Seventy over the missions here.) He is just the counselor and man it was all so good. They really helped us know what it is that we need to do in order to improve our areas. I bumped into like 4 people from school who are in the missions around me like the other Houston Missions, like Parker Olson and also Levi Gifford (I did track with him). Show Trent these people. He will know them I think. But yeah it was really cool to see them. Oh and this kid named Elder Chandler! from AF. Tell the Smith’s (Chase and them) and they will know him. That was really fun. I almost asked to borrow his tag for a picture but didn’t have time so next time. It will be great! Also this guy just moved here from Provo and he knows lots of people who I know! He plays ultimate Frisbee a lot so he knows the math teacher Mr Kroupa from Timberline and he knows David Warner and other kids who I used to play with. It was fun to go out and talk with him about home while we were going to do a visit in Texas. Well, everything here is going great. The weather got hot again but I hope it will turn cold soon.

I’m now out of my brace and am trying to take it easy so that it can heal up all the way.

The work is good and the word is true. I love this opportunity that I have to serve all the time, to study and to do the things the Lord wants me to do. This is His work. He just lets me be a part of it. I know this work is true and I’m pumped for every new day. I love you all and hope that all is well.

Chow for now (haha thanks Nate)

Elder Birks

PS Peace out ya’ll. There is work to do!

We have been doing well. Me and Elder S* are doing really well. We get along great.

Portion of a letter we got today in the mail:

So we had a kinda cool thing happen this past week. Me and Elder S* were looking for this family that the missionaries found awhile ago and then stopped visiting. We knew their name and the street and that was about it but we thought like no big deal, we will just go look for them. Then we found out that the street is way, way long. We were like "If God wants us to find them we will." So we drove down the road and we thought about where they might live. As we drove we felt there were some houses we should check so we parked and talked to this guy and he told us some houses to check for Spanish people and we found a lady who moved from our apartment. I knew it was her house by the dogs. But yeah, that was cool. But then we left that house and started to drive the other way looking for that family. We suddenly felt like we should stop and go knock on a door. We walked up and knocked. The man came to the door and ta da it's him! We found them all, one family on a way big long road. Yeah for following the Spirit! We will be going back this Thursday.

Ask a missionary

 Well, Conference rocks when you’re on a mission!! It’s probably been good forever just this year it was really good. I took like page after page of notes, so much I can’t wait to get the Ensign and read them all. It will be so good. How did you like the “Ask a missionary” talk? Haha, no pressure for me right. It was a really good talk and right after it ended we stood up to go see if there were any Spanish people and this lady stops me and says “Elder, do you think I could get a blessing? I didn’t know what to do and then I got told to ask a missionary so here I am.” It was great. I gave her a blessing just after the session ended and it was really cool. I love giving blessings. The oil part still gets me really nervous though. I will need to work on that. Also just in case you were kinda interested/wondering what happened other than conference this weekend, nothing happened this weekend other than conference. But on Thursday I had a Baptism!!! Haha. It was crazy. We started planning it all on Monday. It was crazy trying to get it all put together but it worked out. Oh and it was in Spanish! Yeah. I get so nervous I kinda messed up (I forgot to say his name, that’s important) but after that part I got through the rest and under the water he went. It was great. He is such a cool little kid. His name is D* and he is really cool. It was a great thing to get to teach him all the lessons and things so fast. He will be a great member of the church.

Oh something else kinda funny. So they do from time to time these talks at Zone Conference where they tell all the missionaries to prepare a short talk. You never think you will be the one to be picked. I’m just lucky I guess. They called me up and I suddenly realized how I really didn’t understand the scripture we were to use like at all! But I had a little something prepared. Not something to read, I still don’t do that well but I got up and just spoke of the importance of the scripture to me. That’s one thing I’ve learned from my mission or at least about giving talks. We are chosen to share with the group why that scripture or topic is important to US not why it should be important to everyone else. It also takes away the pressure of being corrected. The scripture was Luke 9:23-25 and it talks about taking up your cross daily and things along those lines.

Luke 9:23-25

King James Version (KJV)

²³ And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
²⁴ For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
²⁵ For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?

When I read it some things stood out to me. When we take up our cross we stand out, when we know why it is that we do something it makes it possible. And that to drop your cross is to give up your choice. We all have the option to drop our cross and join the world but as we do that we will be lost in the crowd. There was more but that’s some of the main parts. I hope you have your scriptures with you and can read the verse or that won’t make any sense.

Well things are good here. We are having fun and working hard. We are just trying to find people to teach who can really use the help. There are so many people that could be helped with what we have. Well my time is just about up. I’m pumped about the new mission age.

 I love you all so much and hope that all is going really good.

 Love Elder Birks

Working hard and having fun in Texas

Well the week is gone and once again I find myself in the library, crazy. Well it’s been a fun week. It always is but this week I feel like I was laughing a lot. Let me just say drunk people are funny. They try to tell you something and then they think that you didn’t get it so they tell you like 4 more times, haha it’s great. We had this funny kinda older man talking to us (Mexican cowboy, hat, boots and all) and he is just chatting away tell us how he is a sinner and that it’s because of the beer he was holding but he knew God loved him. It was really funny and he kept getting closer to us and almost poking me, (but he was a nice drunk guy, I thought he might hug me). It was really funny. The only problem is that it takes a lot of our time and with someone like that they don’t really remember us the next time we see them. But one day we will see. It was good practice for my Spanish. Oh and my Spanish is coming along. I can understand a lot and can make up the rest but yeah it’s coming little by little. I’ll get it before I’m done I’m sure. It’s really fun to be able to talk to people who can speak Spanish. It just blows my mind that when we get done with a lesson me and Elder S* will be talking a little about what happened and then I’ll suddenly realize that the lesson was all in Spanish! It sounds funny but it’s so cool to be able to retell a story in English that you heard in Spanish. It blows my mind.

We’ve been really trying to do the work around here that will help our branch grow. It’s been hard just because there are so many people that work all the time. We had a member get a little discouraged this past week and he wanted to switch to an English ward because there are more people. That would have been so bad. I told him how much his example and his priesthood mattered and how important him and his family were to the branch and he decided to give it another try!! It was so great to see them in church and to see his faith in the Lord. I know that it will help him and he will be blessed for going.

We had some crazy stuff happen. We found that there is a member family in the ward that have a little boy that isn’t baptized and he is 9. That means that we get to  teach him and take him through all of the things. We hope to teach him this week and do the baptism between sessions at conference. Oh that would be so cool. We had been a little nervous because when we talked to his mom she said that he didn’t really want to be baptized and all this stuff so we had a fast and went and taught the family a lesson about the importance of the Spirit and how it helps us in our lives to have a direction and we talked about how it was through baptism that we get the gift of the Holy Ghost and this boy looks at his mom and says “When can I get baptized?” and she was like “When would you like?” He said “I don’t know” and then Elder S* said “We could do it next Saturday if you want” and he said “YES!” It was so cool. It’s been crazy trying to get everything figured out because we have a lot to cover but we will see. We are trying to get his dad ready so he could baptize his son but if not him then I will do it. Haha I was so happy it was crazy.

 I hope you all are reading and saying your prayers. We believe in the Bible and we know it to be the word of God. It kinda takes the fire away from someone when they are trying to tell us things from the Bible that they think we don’t know and we say “No we do believe that but because of the Book of Mormon we know more…” It’s been funny to me. Read the scriptures and you will not be confused. If you ask God, He will help you see the truth but it takes work on our part. We are so blessed to have both books. We have the whole picture. I really love them both and I hope you can come closer to them as well.

I love you all and hope all is well.

Love,

Elder Birks

Jail time...

What’s up family?  Well this week has been a fun one. With the transfer I’m now with Elder S*. He is really cool. He is from Arizona and is awesome. He has like 3 more transfers left and we are working really hard and he is really good at Spanish. I feel like I will progress way faster now then before just because I can pick up more of the things that he says. We are working really hard and yes J* has a new date. It’s for the 13^th of October. We will pray very hard for the things that need to happen to make that possible.

We had a really cool thing happen this week. We went to the county jail and were visiting a members brother when he told us about another person who wanted to see us so we called him out and talked with him as well as our members brother. Then the next time they both came up and talked with us (like a week later). They told us about another guy that wants to talk with us. So we called him out and talked with him for a little while. Then at church we got a call from the jail that there is another person who wants to talk with us. Yeah for finding in jail!! It’s been really funny. Grandma and Granddad must be doing kinda the same thing. It’s kinda fun to teach people who have nothing better to do then read the things we tell them. Too bad they are in jail and we have to talk to them through the little phone and the window. So much fun!! It’s like a prison movie. Yep, we are just that cool.

I translated at church again this week and it was really fun. I think I’m starting to do a little better at what I’m telling people. It’s always intense when the President tells stories from his past and I have to try and translate the stories to his wife. (She could call me out if I start to make stuff up.) I always hope that the people I talk to through the headset can feel the Spirit of the speaker. It’s hard for me to decide if I want to talk as the person or as a person who is explaining it. It’s always good though and it will keep coming with practice.

So this week we got to go to dinner with some really cool families. One of them is an investigator family and the man made us ribs and man they were so good. It was really nice and we had a good lesson with some of the girls there. People keep thinking that I’m like 21 or 22 and it shocks them when I’m 19 but it’s not even a big gap. It’s kinda funny though.

We keep trying to tell people why it is that we are out here and I always find it easier to explain if I’m holding the Book of Mormon. That is why we are here to explain to people that there is more, that God loves all his children and that He has given us something that will make everything more clear. I love the scriptures. They answer my questions. They help me see what I need to do to receive the promised blessings of the Lord as well and they are always there for me. I realize now that I always had my scriptures when I was home and I really didn’t do my part. I didn’t read like I should have. I didn’t do the things that would really help me and the people that its hurt is my investigators and me. Now is a time in my life where I always want to read more and I feel like I never have time. I hope all of you are taking the time to try and read every day, even just a little will make such a big difference in your day. I know that as we try, as we show the Lord that we are willing to listen to the things that he has asked us to do, he will bless us. Alma 32 is a great chapter about this. As we work to know if it’s true, God will tell us. I challenge all of you to read that chapter in the next week. Let the seed grow! Take care of it and you will be able to feel the blessings that come, the blessing that is so sweet and so delicious that Lehi wished his whole family would partake. Read and you will know for yourself that this is true. This church is true. I know it and that’s why I’m here.

I love you all and hope all is well.

Love,

Elder Birks

Who hit fast forward on my life!

What’s up family!! Well I will be staying in good old Clute for a little longer but Elder L* is on his way out. I’m not sure how to feel. It’s like happy pumped and sad all in one. It’s going to be really strange to be the one who knows the area now. My new companion will probably be a district leader as well so that’s good. They work really hard. We are sad but we know it’s all with what God wants so all is well.

 For now things are going really well and I feel that the work is going to progress. Well with J* his date fell through for the moment. He got way sick Saturday night and didn’t sleep well and was still sick all Sunday so he didn’t just flake out on us! Yeah! But because he didn’t come he has to get a new date so we will ask him tomorrow about that. Things are going good. We are having some people do really well that have been just kind of stagnant for a while like C*. He is reading the Book of Mormon so good. He is reading in Alma right now and he is just reading along. Some day we really hope that he will pray about it but for now he is just reading to know what it talks about. But if it’s in his hand I’m really happy. We have a good relationship with him now and he seems like he enjoys us coming over so we have hope. But when he really starts progressing we will give him to the other elders and they will get to see where he can go. We know the work is true. It doesn’t matter who is telling them.

Well this is going to be a really good week. I can feel it. The members here are doing so great. All the sisters are becoming friends and inviting each other over for food and things. That’s so good for this area! Also our less active members are really doing well and seem to be so close to making it back to church.

Ok so I have this computer that keeps freezing and I think it’s going to kill me. So I’ll just end and send a letter to ya’ll.

But first! So do you have a Preach My Gospel in the house? If you do, go to chapter 6 and I would invite you all to pick one Christ-like attribute that you could do better. For me I’m working on diligence. You should try it out. Like look up the scriptures and all that and see what you think. I will be trying to do it every week for the next little while and see what I come up with. After each study write down how it’s helped you to come closer to Christ because as we take on his attributes we will begin to feel His love in our lives more every day.

All right I’m going to get off the computer now before I have to kill it.  I love you all and will keep you in my prayers.

Love Elder Birks

Temple

Ok well sorry this is late but I got to go to the temple today and because of that they had to change our p-day and all that kind of thing but I got to go to the temple!! It’s so cool here. Have you all seen it? It’s really cool. Look it up. We got to go for like 6 hours because we went with a member who was working a shift there so we just stayed and did different stuff. I wrote more in a letter I’ll send today.

Um this has been a good week. I really can’t believe how fast it all goes. I feel like I’m writing ya’ll all the time and it’s just crazy that it’s been so long. This might be my last week with Elder L*. Sad and not cool but it is what it is. We don’t know yet but we will see next Monday.

We had been having some crazy stuff happen this week with our members. We have this sister whose name is L*. She is way cool. She was telling us how she was on the phone with her brother when she heard him get in a fight with his girlfriend and she just heard yelling and stuff so she went and jumped a fence and broke it up. That sounds like kinda strange but if you could see L* you would laugh. She is like 5’3” or something and the fence is tall and she was like “I just jumped right over it”. She didn’t understand it either. I almost lost if right then. That was really funny.

We have a guy with a baptismal date now. That was really cool. His name is J* and he is really cool. He is interested in hearing what we have to say and in trying to read and pray. If he does it then we are gold because it’s true. All they have to do is read and they will know, it’s just that simple. There are some things I’ve been learning in my time here, like if you say your prayers every night (family and personal), do your home and visiting teaching and read your scriptures you won’t be able to fall away. The people that fall are the people that stop and that’s all it is. They choose to forget what they know. I want to ask every less active person what it was that kept them away and I’m sure it always starts with small things. People need to go to church, and more than that they need to want to go to church. Church is the chance we all have to be able to turn off the world. It’s the time where we can ask our questions to God and expect to get our answers. I know that if we can get people to come to church they will feel the Spirit that’s there and they will be able to understand why it’s so important. I love the way that the Spirit talks to me. I know it’s different for everyone but I think I’m really learning how to listen out here. I love the things that we teach and the way that it can help people.  What we have is really special. Never forget it! Please read and pray as a family. If you’re not doing it start. If you are GREAT JOB! Keep it up. It could make all the difference in the future. I love you all.

Good bye all and I love ya lots

Elder Birks

PS Oh and we are trying to get into the county jail to teach a members brother still. We hope to go in this week! It feels so funny walking in. We are going to get into jail one way or another ;-)    We will see how it works. I just thought about that. Love ya’ll

Working hard and making goals (With my face!)

Well first I’m no longer sick, at least for the most part. I still have to be a little careful about how and what I eat, but we eat whatever the members give us so sometimes it doesn’t even matter if I try. So we were not able to go out on Monday because I was sick and that kinda stunk but I really didn’t feel well. I just hurt in my head a lot and felt really weak.

I had my first exchange where I was the one to stay in the area! It was with an elder that won’t talk really unless you force him to, but he speaks Spanish so that’s really good. It was awesome and it made me so glad that I’m not too afraid of talking to people because if that had been the case we would have just chilled there and said nothing to anyone.

On exchange we had a really cool experience happen. We were able to go and visit this family who we have met like 3 times. We first met the dad and he told us to come back. Then we met the wife and talked with her and she told us all about her family and the stuff that’s going on. Check this out, she has a 28 year old or something and a 3 year old! Just think about that for a second. Wow, crazy stuff! On the third time we went by her son came to the door and he was interested! We actually taught him a lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon and he said that when he can he really wants to come to church. Not so much for a ‘Wow this is true’, but more for a ‘What is it that you all do’ but I will take it.

We have been working really hard to try and help out our members and try to get referrals. We have this one sister who is so close to being active and she has tons of referrals in mind but she is not telling us them yet. It sounds funny when I say it like that but what we see with her is a gold mine because she knows a lot of people who need help and they always ask her questions. She is really cool. But with her we were talking to this guy who we met like my first week here and haven’t seen him since then and suddenly we were like “Hey well do you have your Book of Mormon?” He was like “No I gave it to my mother-in-law. She goes to your church.” Hmmmm. Who is she? He told us he is the son-in-law of this member! Suddenly I recognized the kids running around. They are her grandkids who she watches sometimes and brings to church with her. (Wow I felt so stupid.) It was like oh, and suddenly I was thinking about all the times she had told us about her son-in-law (she is L* and he is J*) and so I had like all this new info on J* who we were talking to. I knew his church and all kinds of random stuff that L* has been saying. It’s crazy how the Lord works. Really I’m just blown away at how many people we know that have ties to the church. It’s so crazy.

Well I think my time is kinda short today. I hope that ya’ll are doing well and that everything is going really good. Have lots of fun. Good luck everyone with the week.

Oh I played soccer today! I was able to do ok as long as I didn’t try too hard because of my foot (haha yeah I still need to work on that half speed thing.) It was so fun. I made 2 goals and I didn’t really hurt anyone! Only a little but he was ok after. One of my goals was kinda an accident, well both were actually. One I was running for the net when the guy on my team kicked it so I tried to stop and slipped out and this girl (other team) kicked it and with the way I was falling, my face was right in front of the ball and just hit it in the net. Goal!!!!!!! Haha, it was crazy and it didn’t really hurt. The other was a cross to the middle and the guy trying to defend it came running back to stop it, then I kicked it and he accidentally hit it in the net. Goal!!!!!! Haha, I’m just that good at soccer. Worship if you like. It was way fun and we will see if I can walk tomorrow. I love this area. I’ll be kinda sad when I leave.

Well, I love you all. Hope you know you’re in my prayers and that I feel yours.

Elder Birks

Planting seeds, praying, and glowing in Texas

Hola! Well the weeks just seem to fly by. It’s been really crazy how fast it all goes. I feel like it’s always another p-day or another planning day or Sunday. It’s really strange at this rate… I’ll think of that later. Well this has been a fun week. We have been making some great contacts with people here and we feel that we are planting seeds. At this point I feel like a farmer waiting for rain. My seeds are planted but they need to be fed. I’m loving the people here. Texans are just fun. Oh and you can’t tell how old someone is ever because you’ll think the person’s like 20 and they will be like 13 and you’ll think the person’s 13 and they will be 9. It’s just strange and all the people are bigger. Not the Spanish people though. That’s been kinda funny. They are all kinda small and really nice. I really like Spanish food. They are just good  cooks. It’s crazy what they make and it’s so simple you just kinda always want more!

Well this week whats been going on…We OYM-ed this lady who was sitting on her porch smoking and we talked with her for a little while. She was really nice. She is the wife of an assistant pastor at some church and she is the chorister and soloist. She was so nice and she told us to come by some time for some ice tea and crumpets. Haha. She was cool and she wants us to call her Miss Cookie. I really hope we can go talk with her about the church. She would be such a great member.

We were going around (and this may have been last week, it’s all kinda a blur) and this guy calls us over and we go and are talking to him and he tells us that he is homeless and that he would like to pray with us. We were like “Ok cool” so then he stands up, takes our hands, lifts them up above our heads (Oh yeah we were right by a major road with lots of cars going by) and says a prayer. It was kinda funny. After we got done he said “thanks” and then I was like “Can I say one now?” He looked at me kinda funny and said “Sure” so then we showed him how we pray and I said one and he was like hmmm and we left. It was really cool.

We had Stake Conference this Sunday (so the girl from the library didn’t come. It was too far away, way sad) but we had such a good Stake Conference. The people that they had speak were so good. Oh my gosh the Spirit was so strong. We spent the first half hour running around the church trying to get the translating stuff to work. That was stressful! The headsets would work from the half way point and up and almost all the Spanish people were running late so they were in the back with headsets that would only do static. So we had them try and move up a little but they didn’t really want to so we don’t know how well the people understood but it was really fun anyway. President Ashton was there and spoke to us as well. That was really cool He is such a great guy and he makes me want to be better every time we see him. It’s really fun to think how close they live to us back at home.

Well I can’t think of really anything that’s going on right now. I’m doing good. I’m having so much fun and we are doing great. Oh cool thing. I was talking to this girl about Stake Conference and she was looking at me all funny. (We were in a kinda dark apartment, the people with the ferrets if you remember them) and she looked at me and said something like “Did you know that you glow when you talk about this stuff? Like you just looks so happy you really glow.” What do you say to that? I was like “Well it’s because what we share really does make us happy.” It was really cool. I know that I am nothing without the power and love of my God and like the people around here say “God is good!” I hope only to be a tool in His hand and to bring the lost sheep to the fold and you all know how much I love animals! So I’m in. The work is true. The people are awesome and the seed is good. All they have to do is feed it and it will swell. I know that that’s true.

I love you all and hope all is really well.

Love,

Elder Birks

PS Funny and kinda sad thing. I’ve gotten to the point where I can recognize or remember who we are talking to by their dogs. Like I’ll be sitting there talking to someone and then I’ll see the dog and be like “Wait I know you.” Then I’ll remember the other time I’ve talked with the owner. Strange right. Well give my dog some love for me. Love you all.

Fighting against Satan

Well just so you know this has been a great week. Well to answer some of your questions. This A* and S* have dropped off the face of the earth kinda. We saw them yesterday driving away but that’s good because that means they are not dead so we can work with that! Well we have been having some fun trying to get to meet people and have them keep their commitments to see us again. We are having a really hard time finding just Spanish people because a lot of the people that we talk with are English.

We had a kinda cool thing happen or at least I thought it was cool. We had this guy who we bumped into the other day invite us to come by the next time we see them outside. So when we saw him we were able to come by and talk with him. Just some back ground on him. He was kicked out of Argentina because they called him a prophet. He has a very strong testimony of the power of the Spirit and he is a person who loves and knows the bible. He really respects the missionaries and thinks we do a great thing but he doesn’t like that Joseph Smith used the urim and thummin to translate the Book of Mormon. That seems to be his only real problem. So while we were talking to him he tells us that he can’t ask if the Book of Mormon is true because then that invites the devil to give him a false witness. WHAT? We just sat there and were like what? I was like “If you know the Spirit you will be able to tell the difference between the devil and the Spirit”. But he almost flat out said that he would not change his ways and that he would not pray. So then I asked him to read the Book of Mormon and see if he felt the Spirit and he said he would but that he didn’t think he would need any help in doing his searching. Yeah, we will see where that goes. Well yeah, that’s one thing that’s been going through my mind.

Well the church is true. I can’t believe how close some people are to the truth and that right at the last moment they look away or get distracted. That’s Satan! HE IS THE ONLY THING KEEPING PEOPLE IN THE DARK! Satan is a blinder over their eyes that has them so lost and confused that they don’t know who or where they really are. Every person on this earth is a child of God. As such we have the chance to become as the Father and to be like Him. I’ve heard that one of the things that will surprise us the most is that when we get to heaven we will be shocked at how much we can recognize our Father in heaven. How cool is that! We know Him and He knows us. He loves us and wants us to be happy and the only thing that holds people back is the devil. Please stay strong. Read your scriptures, pray daily, and help those who need it because I’m sick and tired of people that I care about getting lost. I love you all so much and I hope you are doing good.

Love Elder Birks

It's a Girl!

Hey well everything has been going great. I’m so excited for the baby. That’s so cool. I can’t believe she is here. Congrats! I’m glad it all went good.

Umm this has been a good week. We are meeting with some really nice people and trying to teach with power. We had the chance to talk with A* and have a lesson with him and that was really cool. We were able to read with him and then have the chance to talk with him about what he thought and Man! He is a deep thinker and it’s funny because he seems to feel bad that he has so many questions and we are like “No those are good.” It’s been really fun to be able to live so close to such cool people. We have also been able to help like four different families move in this last week or so. That has been great. I really love being able to help people out. It’s awesome.

We had a cool thing happen this last week. Ok, so background. Like three weeks ago or so we were visiting this guy when this man came out of his house and as he came out he saw us and was like “Wow, I don’t talk religion or anything” and just walked away. Well there were some times in the next week that we saw them and that slowly we were able to talk a little with them about the most random things like ferrets and things. It’s been really funny because we feel like we have just kinda seen their hearts soften.  Things have been going good.

We are working hard and still trying to get out and talk to as many people as we can but we will see if we can start finding some people who speak Spanish. We also have had the chance to go by and visit that anti family like 3 times, just doing really friendly stuff like seeing if they need any service or anything so that’s been really cool and we think soon we will be able to get into their house and share a lesson with them but we will see how that goes. We have been told that the dad likes to yell when he feels people are trying to teach him. BRING it on! I’m pumped. I know that what we teach is true and that there is nothing they can yell about that will change that. I want you all to know that I know this is the work of God and that we are here only as his servants, that we only have power when we speak his words and that we can’t force anyone to accept it. They have to let it into their heart but if they do they will feel such a sweet joy. I hope you are all reading the scriptures and saying your prayers because it’s important.

I love you all. Peace out family.

Elder Birks

AND GO USA!

No transfer

I'm not getting transferred and neither is Elder L so that is good and we are in the same apartment. I got one Book of Mormon from Grandma, the one with David W. testimony (thanks by the way, that was way cool!).  It's in my bag right now just waiting for a new home. I'm excited.

This has been an awesome week, not so much in our numbers or anything, I just feel so good. We had interviews with the president and we talked a little about our area and now I feel really pumped up and ready to go. We are changing the focus in the mission kinda. We aren't going to be doing so much OYM-ing now and more finding less actives and trying to get them back. So we have been traveling all around our area and trying to find members from like years ago. It's like a game. You go to their house, then when or if they don't answer the door you go to all their neighbors and ask if they know them or if they know how long they have been gone. Then we ask if they have ever heard of our church (OYMS ROCK). It's been a lot of fun. We went and looked for a family who we know is anti now and that was really good. They don't hate us too much and were really willing to talk to us. We are just trying to be friendly with them and then they will love us and come back to church!!

Well, a less active lady just sat down next to us and she's Spanish. (Cool!)I'll try to write you a letter later if I run out of time here. We helped her find a scripture, that's cool.

Love,

Elder Birks

Sorry it's late!

Dear family,

Well Texas is doing great. We are working really hard and trying our best to talk to everyone we see and it’s so fun! I really like talking to people. It’s kinda like a game now of how long can we talk to someone that you can kinda tell doesn’t like us and the best part is that by the end they kinda like us. (I hope) But yep it’s been a fun week. Sorry we missed yesterday. It’s not my fault! We had to de-bug our house. It was crazy. There are videos but that will come later.

Back to the work! This week we had a really funny OYM. We were walking around our apartment when we see this guy getting out of his truck and so I go over and start talking to him. I say “Hi” and he looks at me and says “Mande?” (It’s like, “What?” in Spanish) So I was like YESSS and I answered in Spanish and he was like, “WHAT?”  His eyes got all big. It was really cool. I started to tell him about who we were and what we do when he says “Ummm could we talk in English?” He tried to speak Spanish to get rid of us. He thought we were lawyers and that we came to get mad at him for something. So haha. Yep I’m just that lucky. But he is way cool. He has tons of questions! Questions are the best because we can do something with questions. We are super pumped for him. He asked us to come back and answer his questions (Where do questions come from and why do we have them?) and we did and we helped him out. We gave him a Book of Mormon and taught him and his girlfriend. In the lesson she asked us just randomly, “So I need to be baptized to be a Mormon right? It was awesome. I don’t think we had even talked about that at all.  Oh, and she speaks Spanish too but likes English better. Ummm yeah, in the end he said a prayer and he said something like “Thanks for these new friends who we hope will become family.” I was freaking out inside because they are so cool and that was the best prayer I’ve heard in a long time! So we left and they told us to come back whenever we want and that they will have food next time and etc. (perfect people). But yesterday we got a text. “I can’t see you today, I think I need to move back home and go back to school.” We were kinda confused and we will be seeing him tonight to see what’s going on but yeah, we hope he is doing good. So that’s that.

The weather has been great. Warm and sticky but it’s probably only around 100 or so. Not much more so that’s been nice.

We have a car but we can only drive it 1200 miles a month. We use the car to get up to some better places to bike. So that’s how that works and we use the car for church and meetings (zone and district). It’s been going great.

I love all ya’ll and hope you’re having a good week.

Love,

Elder Birks

Elders 'D' & 'C'

No Email from Elder Birks yet, so for your viewing pleasure, a crazy missionary comic strip.  Thanks Brother Fortune.

District in the MTC

Elder Birks and his companion

The man that we met who wanted to do some research has changed… We don’t know why but now he is always drinking and cussing and it’s just strange. We think there is some stuff going on with his home life that’s just stressing him out and because of that and because he is not home it makes him really stressed. We keep talking to him and we think we are becoming friends and we will just see where that goes.

We met this way cool guy this week. His name is R and he is from India!! Yeah for another English speaker, kinda. It’s really fun to talk to him. He was showing us how to write in his language. Yep, I’m glad I’m speaking Spanish. But we were talking to them and it’s really funny because they have nothing in their apartment. Like we were sitting on the floor and teaching him. We showed him a picture of a temple and he was like “WOW that looks so cool” and he was telling us how all the things we were saying were like from a different planet and that he was super confused but excited to learn more. (We were pumped). Then we also found out that he lives with a guy who we had OYM-ed who speaks Spanish. His name is E and he is way cool. We are really excited! But R didn’t pass a test at the place he was trying to get a job so he doesn’t have work around here and he just vanished the other day. Not cool. We hope he is doing well but we are not sure. We are still going to be trying with E.

How is my Spanish? Well, it’s coming. I can do ok. I understand most of what they say; I just have to listen really hard. That’s the hardest part. You know how you can like listen to several conversations at the same time and be looking for a scripture at the same time? Yep, I can’t do that. Not very well at the very least. But it’s really fun to start speaking Spanish to someone and they are like WOW this white kid can speak Spanish! It’s really funny to see their face when it happens. But I figure with time it will come. So I’m pumped. I had to give my first talk on Sunday in Spanish. Yeah that was really hard and it’s not a 3-5  it’s a 10-15 when you’re in a small branch.  I got to bless the sacrament but it was a surprise because I was just giving them the bread and they were like “well you will be saying the bread right?” I was like “um sure” and then I spent the next few minutes looking over the prayers for like the first time in Spanish but I got through so we were ok. Fun Sunday. Lots going on.

 Well I love all of ya and hope you have a great week. Have fun with the videos. I took a video with a frog.

Well love ya,

Elder Birks