Beware of Dogs

Hey family,

I’m glad ya’ll had a good trip. Sounds like there was a lot of fun stuff to do. As for me it’s been a good week. We had 4 kids go to mutual and 7 investigators from my area! We were not able to go (super sad) but it worked out because we got to go teach N* and W* so that was great as well. The kids really like going to mutual though and are wanting to go again. It’s funny though because they all play on the same soccer team so when they play together they just destroy our young men. Haha but next time we will be there and we will help the teams be more even but way cool.

Also I’ve been learning that God will answer our prayers when we are very specific and seeking to do His will more. So I’ve learned that as we pray like that we actually find out what is His will and while we think He is answering our prayers in reality we have just finally understood what He was really wanting to do and feel the conformation of the Spirit to help us know that that’s right. I hope that kinda makes sense but it’s been a really cool week.

I had a few funny things happen this week so first funny thing.

1- We went to visit a family who are super cool but really short on time because they both have callings in the Stake. So stopped by and ended up needing to come back in like half an hour so we left to go visit some people close by and their dog followed us for the whole time. It was like a good half-mile or more of just running with us on our bikes and she totally had our backs because she went and kept the other dogs that were out away from us. Haha we had our own guard dog. (No worries, even when we don’t have her we can out run the dogs that are out.)

2. I went to this house and as we walked up I saw this pit bull just chillin by the fence and was like ‘Oh she looks nice’. As we were leaving because they weren’t home I went and was looking at her (deciding if she was nice or was trying to trick me so she could eat me) and I put my hand flat against the fence and she like fell on the ground wanting to get petted. Haha so I was playing with her and this other dog and they were both so nice and Elder S* was laughing at the Beware of Dogs sign above my head. It was great. We will go get a picture of it some day I hope. I sure love dogs. Lobo one day I will get to play with you again!

But yeah, I know that the Lord really is keeping us safe and He knows what He is doing. I love the chance to go around and visit with people and to try and help out whenever we can. I know there is opposition in all things but really if you never had a bad day you would never be grateful for the good and great days. I love that God can help us have a light heart and that He can help us laugh away our problems or our trials. The Lord has blessed me with so much and I am just grateful to have the chance to be here and to participate in his work. The work will not be stopped! There are always miracles that wait when we put in our effort. A flat tire does not mean a ruined day; it just means that God needed us to stay in that spot for a little longer than we wanted to.

I love ya’ll and hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Birks