Pictures!

Chan sent home the memory card from his camera last week. Thought I'd share some pictures. He also sent a letter and I wanted to share a story from it.

"Well I want to tell you about the other day. We were out and it was raining hard. Just a really wet day but we have a car so no worries there. We were going around an apartment looking for people to talk with when we got a call from Elder C*. He says that there is a dinner appointment they need to go to thats a little far away and was wondering if he could use the car. I said yes and we went to go and switch. Now just some detail for understanding. The rain was not cold at all so that was fine. It had been raining for like 6 hours so there were huge puddles. My pants were wet up to my rain jacket and that was just from walking around. When we picked up Elders C* and E* they were soaked and the rain wasn't getting weaker or anything. Well we jumped back in the car and drove to our apartment. When we got there we got on our bikes and the car left. Our appointment fell through so we were just biking around in the rain for like an hour and a half. It was way fun! There were big puddles and the sidewalks in spots were like rivers, like it came up over half my wheel. After 20 minutes I stopped trying to stay dry (It was hopeless) and just started playing around, jumping off curbs into puddles, going off speedbumps. It was really fun. I got to talk to this lady while we were out and she's like "What are you doing?"
I said "Well, we have a message about Christ that we share."
She said "But it's raining!"
I said "That never stopped Christ."
She said "Then I think that's true."
And so on. It was just fun to have people see that this is that important to us and to God. The other thing was it had just been a kinda hard day in the morning and going around. I had asked God to help me out when Elder C* called. I know rain is not the most fun thing to some people but God knew that I was needing to play in the rain. It was cool. I really felt like God was looking out for me. Haha I'm not sure Elder D* had as much fun as me but he did great with it. God knows us all and He knows how to succor His children. All we have to do is have faith in His power and He will make things happen."

Current companion is on the far left. A previous companion is right next to Chan.

Elder Chan and his last companion.

I love to serve!

This has been a great week. We have just had things kinda work out. Like it’s really funny. We will be going around and be like ‘we need to have a lesson’ and then a lady will walk out with garbage and I go up and take it from her and then we start talking and then she tells us to come in or to come by another day (happened 3 times this week). It’s so great. I really love having the chance to serve people out here. It makes things happen, but I don’t even do it to make things happen. I just do it because I like to and because it’s good and if Christ were here I think he would help too. But because of that I have found so many people out here that are so much more open to us after we have served them. The trick I’ve learned is always serve, Always and never ask for anything. When they ask you “Why are you doing this?” it’s so much more sincere and it’s something we can answer “I Love to serve.” I think that’s what would go on my shirt, HI, I’M A MISSIONARY. HOW CAN I HELP? Well yep, that would be a cool shirt.

Well cool thing. We were able to find this kid J* and teach him and help him out. We taught him the plan of salvation with some sweet pictures I got from a missionary here and after we got done we talked about the Spirit and how we try and follow it. Then I told him about that Cuban girl who prayed for us to find her and he looks at us and says “Ahh man I think I’m going to cry.” (He’s like 17 and the son of a recent member). “I’ve been so stressed about what’s going to happen when I die that I’ve been praying for the past three nights to have my questions answered.” So we had just showed up that day and I had just happened to have the pictures with me and I had just practiced how to use them that morning. God knows His children. He knew that J* needed to hear that lesson and He helped me be ready to teach it. It was way cool. We then talked about a date to be baptized and I asked, “How long will it take you to be ready?” (That’s not what I normally say) and he said “One month from today.” It was like a Tuesday, so I explained that we do baptisms on Saturdays so lets try and see what’s the closest one to the day you said and the next month the day he said was a Saturday! It was way cool. The Spirit was really strong.

The R*’s came to church and stayed for all of it! They are so legit. The girls don’t have dates yet but they will soon. They have been doing so good. I really love that family. They are some of the people I was supposed to meet here, I feel that way strong.

I love ya’ll and hope you have some fun. Know that I’m sweating and that it’s already getting hot. I love the heat (if I say that enough it will be true). I love the heat x 100 = happy Elder Birks

Love ya’ll

Elder Birks

Staying put

Well let’s start with transfers. I will be staying here and I will be with Elder D* for another transfer. As far as we know we still have the kinda strange (awesome) area but we will find out for sure on Wednesday. But yeah, the week is going good. That was the big thing we were waiting for and nothing really changed so that’s ok. Now we can focus on the work again without fear of change in the companionship.

Sounds like everything is going good in Utah. It’s been a little warmer is how it sounds. Here I’m already starting to sweat again. Haha, strange but yeah, everything has been really good.

We have been having some really cool people meet us, as well as we had some extra time for a few days while we were kinda sick to get the area really organized so that’s been really nice. My GPS is full of names and people who we can visit and just don’t really know very well, if at all, so that’s helping us find people who at one point knew the elders or sisters so it really helps.

We have been so blessed with food in this area! It’s crazy. We were at church and this Sister comes up to us and says “Ok so I have some food in the car for ya’ll. Can you help me with it?” We were like “Sure.” Then she goes out and has like 5 bags of groceries in the car and they are all for us! It was crazy and sooooo nice. I tried to explain that we have money for food (because she said she will do this every week) and she starts crying and says “When I was less-active the only thing that helped me come back is the missionaries eating at my house with us. Now we just don’t have time to do that but I can still make sure you are well fed.” How can you argue with that? So now I only have to spend like $5 a week for food and that’s just because I’m like ‘well, I kinda want treats.’ We could easily go without needing to do that for a week or two. It’s crazy! We are being fed like all the time. I’m almost starting to like cake (kinda. I can eat it with a smile so that’s good.) Try and find some tres leches cake (3 milk). It’s one of the better ones I’ve found and with fruit and stuff it works great. People here just give us so much. They are trying to make me fat I think! I really don’t want to be fat. I have a good work out plan now though so haha, good luck ward members!

Well we have several investigators doing good. The R* didn’t come to church because the dad got sick but they are doing really, really well and we go to their house at least once a week. Mom I feel like you will really like her. I also met this lady who I was sitting with at church and she leans over and says that I remind her of her son. Then I thought about it and was like ‘Wow you remind me of my mom.’ It was a cool kinda sad, strange moment, that moment where I was like almost ready to lean forward and ask you to scratch my back when I suddenly remember you’re still in Utah strangeness. She is way cool. That’s probably why she makes me think of you mom. Haha.

Hey well I’m a little short on time so I’ll end here but I love ya’ll lots. Hope all is good.

Elder Birks

Knock, Knock

What’s up fam! Well all is good here. I’m really sad to say that it’s 50ish and I feel cold. Haha. Have fun with that 0 that you all have. Sounds like all is going well. I can’t believe it’s almost transfers. This has been a really strange transfer, fast and slow, but it’s kinda done now. Strange the way time works.

 So I had a kinda fun thing happen this week. I was on exchanges with the zone leaders, so Elder L* was my comp. We were in this complex and going around trying to find this member. When he wasn’t home Elder L* was like “ok lets go” and I was like “Let’s go look around”. He said that that sounded good and that we should pray to find out if that’s what God wants. One thing we learn out here is how to know what doors to knock on or where to go. There are signs on people’s doors that will let you know if they are Spanish (It’s way cool) so I had 3 doors I wanted to go to, not just because of the stuff by the door, but I knew the people were home. So we went and knocked on one and a guy from Cuba was there (they talk really crazy, it’s great!) He was talking and said we could come back later on Sunday and meet his roommate. We then went to this other guy doing his laundry, also from Cuba. He said we could come by on Sunday as well and see his family. Then he said there was a family from Mexico that lived around the corner that we could probably talk with. So we went around the corner and there was a family on their balcony. I started talking to them and they couldn’t hear because of the cars going by so I went up to their door. They came and talked with me for a while and told me that they knew a little about the church (they are from Cuba) and that we could come in. We talked to the daughter for about 45 minutes or so and she was so cool. She really liked what we said and she had questions and she was just so ready. At the end she offered to do the prayer. She said in her prayer “Thank you God for sending me these missionaries. I prayed all last night to find the right church and you sent me these missionaries to help me.” It was such a sincere prayer. As we left they were telling us that they wanted to come to church, that they want us to come back. Way cool. As we were walking away Elder L* looks at me and says how he was ready to walk away when they couldn’t hear us from the balcony, and if I hadn’t gone to the door we never would have found all that out. It was pretty cool. God is so willing to work with us, we just have to do our part, but as we do it we will be rewarded. I don’t know what’s been going on with them, I was only there for that one day but I know that I was supposed to be there on that day. Cool right!

Well that’s the biggest thing that’s been going on. The R* came to church for the first 2 hours this week and then had us meet their friends for dinner. It was great. They will be doing great. We will be asking the girls to prepare to be baptized on the 26. Ya’ll should pray for us to be able to follow the Spirit on that one.

Well I got to go but I love ya lots.

Elder Birks

Two dinners??? No problem!

Howdy ya’ll. Is it sad that that really is a comfortable thing to say now? Why don’t we use ya’ll back at home? It works so good. Ya’ll should try it. Haha.

Well this has been a fun week. Sometimes we have these funny moments here where it’s like “Wow, what just happened?” Well that’s how this whole transfer has been. I feel like Elder D* just got here but look at this. We are almost finishing this transfer. Crazy but good. 

This has been a kinda funny week. We were able to have a priest in the ward come out with us for 3 days in a row because he didn’t have school and he was kinda bored. Yeah! That was really fun. His names R* and he is a stud. Best kid you’ll ever meet. He has to walk to seminary every morning because his mom doesn’t have a car and so he also will take the bus if he can. He gets there early and sets everything up and…he is just a great kid. He is always telling people that he is doing all of it to prepare for a mission. It was fun to have him out with us.

The family who we called have been doing good. We have had kind of a hard time visiting them but it’s been going good. We feel that they are progressing and we will find out what will happen. 

The R* are doing great. We got them to come over to a member’s house for dinner and to church but they went home after the first hour so that was kinda funny. They just like vanished and while I was looking for them I got a text that said “ya… we are at home.” Haha but they said they will stay next week. They are doing great and they will do great in this ward. We get to eat dinner with them almost every week and really they are so great. Unless something crazy happens they will be some of the people I come back to visit for sure. They are great. We joke with them a lot and it’s way fun.

We are having a funny problem. We have too many meal appointments! We are having a hard time because if you tell people no they feel bad (and we don’t want that) so we have been scheduling like 2 dinners several nights a week. Who knows. I really might gain weight. We will just have to see. Well I hope that you are all doing good. Good luck with school and all that stuff. Talk to ya latter.

Love,

Elder Birks

Wrong number???

Hey family,

Well I hope all is going well for you all. Are you just pumped for the new year? I can’t believe it’s here. I was looking on the board we have at the mission office with all the pictures of the new people coming in. There are so many sisters it’s crazy! soooooo many and like all of them are Spanish and under 21. All of the sisters who are here now will be training for like the rest of their missions. Haha should be good. There are two girls coming here from Highland as well and I remember seeing both of them at school so that’s kinda cool. There will end up being like 5 of us from Highland in the next 6 months. How crazy is that! Almost all of us are Spanish so we will be able to keep our Spanish up.

So my Spanish is coming along. I can teach a whole lesson by myself, which I really don’t want to do but sometimes just kinda happens if Elder D* is feeling quiet. We have a new plan and we did some really good practices this week to make us teach as a better team because we are meant to work together. No matter how good I do, if I do it alone, it could have been better with Elder D* input and we know that so we will be working on that to really do the work that the Lord wants.

Crazy thing. So last night we were just going around, our lessons were falling through, and we were just trying to be where we could teach someone. So I was looking through our phone (we are way lucky because we have 2 so if I can’t find anyone in mine I check Elder D*, haha) but I was looking for this guy. His name is J*. He is the brother of one of our investigators and I wanted to see if they were home so I found his name and I called but as I started to talk I looked back at the phone. I had called the wrong number. I had called J** and I was already asking if we could come over! The good thing is he said yes and what happened was we invited his whole family to be baptized and they all said yes! That’s 5 people with a date to be baptized! It was all because I called the wrong number haha but we did end up getting over to J* brothers and he also accepted a date to be baptized so we had 6 people in the same day. That’s what happens if we are really trying to be where the Lord wants us to be. Things will just work out even if it’s not how you expect it. So that was really cool.

I also have this family that we are teaching right now that is probably one of the coolest families I’ve ever met. They are the R*.  Well, we finally got them to come to church, not for Sunday stuff but to go on a church tour and it was great. They brought their two daughters with them and the girls have never been to church and by the end all the girls were crying (in the good way) and it was awesome. That family will come back if it’s the only thing I do in my time here! They are so ready. It was so cool and the Spirit was so strong. We got to go around with our bishop who ended up getting released the next day! That stinks because he doesn’t live in ward boundaries so I will almost never see them again during the mission and we had just gotten to go to the temple and out to dinner with them. He is like 26 or 28 and has 3 little girls and his wife was awesome and now they are gone. Not cool. We will see what happens.

Well I hope that’s long enough for ya’ll. I’m kind of running out of time so I’ll see ya latter and love ya lots.  Thanks for being great and I’ll see ya when I see ya.

Love,

Elder Birks

I just saw you!

(Letter from 12/26/12)

Well I feel like I just was talking to you. Haha that was really cool. Man I just didn’t know what to say. It was good though. So has anything changed since then? Haha I bet not too much. 

Well all is going good out here. Not too much going on so far this week because a lot of people are out of town or just doing other things but by Friday it should all calm down. We will see. So it was really funny while we were talking because you were asking about some stuff and all the people in the room could hear. 

I’m with Elder D* who is a great elder, he just is a little quiet and he has been in an English area for 6 months so he is working on his Spanish. My Spanish is ok. I really can talk with people, I can teach and I can help people out but it will keep getting better with more time. For right now in our companionship I’m the lead with Spanish and it’s been really fun. I just have kinda had to step up to it because I don’t have a choice in the matter. We have to teach the people and they really don’t speak English and Elder D* is not going to say to much unless he kinda has to (he really is good he just is ok not to talk is all. He says he likes to listen, so he does.) But yeah it’s been going good.

We got a lot of good lessons this last week. It was really good and nice to have a good week under my belt with the new area. There are so many cool people around that we can teach here so that has been great. It’s just about trying to find when we can come by that can be hard. The thing with Texas is everyone believes in something. So many Catholics or Baptists etc. but they all have faith so I try and say we want to try and help them strengthen their faith by showing them things that have really helped ours and I think that it works ok. We have people that don’t always want to hear us but it’s really rare when someone just slams a door or ignores us or is rude. Even people that don’t want to hear us really seem to respect us. It is fun to walk around a neighborhood where the people know us though like the kids will come up and do hi-fives with us. ( I am a really bad follower when it comes to handshakes, I think its cause I’m white haha) but really I’m bad at it but it’s really fun to finally get one right so that when a kid comes up to you,  you can just do this like handshake, snap slide, elbow strangeness and just act like it’s nothing. It’s great. There are so many cool kids out here who are just looking for something better and we are looking to help them find it and I have really loved doing that. My goal for this area is to help the youth program to grow so the kids will be able to start bringing their friends to stuff and not be worried that it’s going to be kinda lame or that there will be nothing to do. God really is blessing me with a lot of kids that are interest in coming an they all seem to have families that are looking for help.

So yeah that is just a little of what’s been going on here. Everything is going great. I’m smiling a lot and the weather is more or less ok just kinda strange but it’s all good when it’s in Texas. Well I hope ya’ll have a great week and that I will hear from you soon.

Elder Birks