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