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