Mardi Gras and being Happy

This week we kinda had to abandon the island (super sad) because Mardi Gras was going on and let’s just say that there are a lot of things that we just don’t need to be here for. We will also be leaving next weekend but’s kinda cool because we got to spend the weekend with all the elders that live off the island but come to our branch so it was super fun. I learned a lot from the elders we stayed with. We had the chance to just go around and teach people. They are starting to sit outside again because it’s hot now and so we just walk up to them and are able to teach them. We taught a lot and it was really cool.

I don’t really know how to explain it but today I had a cool thing happen. I was just kinda stressed and not feeling super good and just not liking it at all and wishing to feel better when I said a prayer and just asked God to help me be happy. I asked hoping to be able to change my state of being. I didn’t want to be sad or upset and I had the hope that praying about it would give me a way out of it. So that happened. I said my prayer and I smiled and I went outside. As we walked down the stairs we see this lady pulling up with a car full of furniture. Moving! So you know what we did? We helped her and were able to (the four of us) unload like 3 cars in like 15 minutes and really help her out and they were thanking us for the help and I just felt happy. I think service is my favorite thing to do. It allows me to forget myself and go to work and to help others and I always feel so good after. I know that God answered my prayer by letting me be able to help this lady move in and I’m so grateful for a God who is willing to answer such a simple prayer and to help me remember that He is really listening to me and that He wants to help me.

Well I hope you know the blessing we are to others when we ourselves are happy people. We can be a light to the world if we are willing to shine. So I invite all of you to try and be happy. Not like fake happy, but real people who live the gospel and know that they are children of God and that through your righteousness He is pleased.

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

Love,

Elder Birks

Ears that hear and eyes that see

What? Ya’ll have missionaries? That sounds crazy! Guess what? I spoke on Sunday too and I got to be the Elder at the end with half an hour haha (in Spanish) but I think I was able to make it work. I spoke till the end. I really love this branch here. They give us a lot of opportunities to help and they expect good things from us. I was able to speak on preparing to go to the temple and it helped me to think a lot about when I went to the temple and how it made me feel as well as helped me realize how much I want that for the members who live here.

 So this week we did have the chance to visit with that family a few times and they are so great. The kids are super funny. If they see a dog outside just wandering around they will run inside and grab a leash and run to try and catch it. Haha once the dog got away and the other time we showed up and they had this little Jack Russell Terrier on their leash and he was just having a blast playing with them. Way fun little kids. It was super sad though. We learned they will be moving in the next few weeks off the island. They will still be in the branch boundaries but in the other Elder’s area. That was super sad because I’m selfish and wanted to teach them but the Lord is helping me learn the real blessing of this work isn’t in how many people we find and teach and baptize but it’s how many people we help come to a knowledge of the truth. It’s going to be ok. I’ll be able to see them at church and to help them out with their progress there.

We have been able to see some fun stuff this week. We were able to go and to help our investigators move and so we were loading up and unloading a truck and that was fun. Today we got to go to the dump and help some people unload their truck and while we waited we unloaded the trucks of 3 other people (I think some of them thought we worked there). One of them, when we told him that we were from the church, started telling us some crazy stuff about how many words are in the Bible and how he looks them up one by one and how that’s all he does. Then he sang us a song about God (all while we unloaded wood out of the back of his truck, haha Texas). Also yesterday we met this guy who was super cool. He was just walking and I asked how his day was and we ended up talking with him for like an hour. Turns out he has given his life to Christ and he just goes around with his Bible and…well I don’t really know what his plan is but he just keeps moving and talking with people about the word. He was super cool. He knows a ton about the Bible and we just sat and were sharing different verses back and forth and it was sweet. I like talking to people who are smart and can explain their point of view. We were trying to help him understand about the Book of Mormon but he just couldn’t accept it. I feel it’s so sad that Satan can hide the truth just by telling people that there is no more to be found. How blessed are we to have open eyes that can see and to have faith enough to be able to ask God about these things and come to know them for ourselves.

I’m really grateful for the chance I have to be here and to meet the people that stay here. They help me understand how blessed I am and have a desire to be better. I really hope that ya’ll have a great week and that everything keeps going good out there in good old Utah.

Love ya’ll

Elder Birks

"Are ya'll from a church?"

What’s up ya’ll! I am missing the Olympics! I was so shocked when we went over to a house and they had it on. Haha I was like Nooooooo but it’s ok, I’ll get over it, I hope.

All has been going great here on the island and I’m loving the area still. We had a super cool miracle happen. We were biking and saw all of these little kids playing outside and sometimes when it’s little kids with no parents it’s best just to keep going and to not mess with them (stranger danger). So we were biking past and I waved and said ‘Hi’ and then this little girl is like “Are ya’ll from a church!?” and I went back and we talked with them for a few minutes and asked if their mom or dad was home (they weren’t) and set up another day to come back.  A few days later we were biking by the house and couldn’t remember when we had set the appointment for and were just like ‘Well let’s try’. As we stopped the dad opens the door and he looks super young and tells us ‘Hi’ and how he usually isn’t home at night but that if we wanted we could come in. Come to find out he is a MEMBER! He hasn’t come in like 13 years and has like a really strong love of the church but just kinda fell away because of work and life. His kids are not members and are 11 and 8 and his wife isn’t a member either. He like really likes it when we come by and his kids both accepted dates to be baptized on the 8^th of March! So we are super pumped for that and all from a super funny little 8 year old yelling at some church people on bikes. Cool right! Well that was my miracle of the week and I hope that this family will progress because they just look like such a good family. The gospel will help them so much in their lives like it has mine and I want that for them. So yeah, that’s one cool thing that happened.

Also at church this week I got to translate almost all of Sacrament meeting and it was sweet. I feel like I’m getting better at it and that it comes a lot faster. I sure hope the people who hear me think the same, haha who knows. We had some of our less actives at church and it was super good. They are doing super good and some day soon we won’t have any less active just actives and that next step will just be to get them to the temple and keep the fire burning.

How cool is this church! I love that the doors are always open and that we are here to help. I love that all of the problems that people have with the church are things that if they actually talked with a member they would learn they are not true. For example: People think we worship Joseph Smith, don’t believe in the Bible, don’t believe in Christ, still practice polygamy, and more just crazy ideas. I love that there is no calling in the church that I can achieve by working my way up. Our callings are from GOD! He will help us as we strive to fulfill them. I know that this is the church of God, which He restored to this earth through His chosen Prophet named Joseph Smith. I know that the Book of Mormon is evidence of that and anyone who reads and asks God with a sincere heart and real intent will come to know as well. The Spirit will not lie to us. I’m so grateful that I was born into the church and that I have had the chance to serve as a missionary. I love my mission and am grateful for all that it has taught me.

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

I’ll see ya

Elder Birks

1st Time Riding the Bus

Hey sorry. Our Internet died yesterday and I couldn’t send my letter. Everything is going good here. We were able to visit with several people so that was great. As the week went on it was pretty cool to be able to get to go by and to do some service type things with some people and to just try and help them out. Yesterday I got to carry this ladies laundry and it was super funny because she like didn’t want me to at first (she is a members daughter so we know her) but then I told her that I just really like to help and she said I could but she took one side and I took the other. Haha, it was really funny. Once we got to the steps to go up to her apartment I was like ‘I’ll just take it’ and she was like ‘Are you sure?’ Now I’m like a lot bigger then her and I thought it was funny that she was ready to do it all alone but that she was worried that I wouldn’t be able to. So I took it up the stairs and she said thanks. Then we set another time to go by and see her today so we will see how all that goes.

It was cool, we got to have zone meeting today and it was super good. All of the people in my zone are way cool and have really strong testimonies. I feel like I learned a lot. This transfer we will be focusing on learning about repentance and how to teach it with power and how to apply it in our lives. We also will be learning how to study so that will be really fun. I’m excited for that. Having time to study is such a big blessing of the mission. I feel like I still have so much to learn but that I’m coming to a knowledge of the truthfulness of the gospel and that has been wonderful

Some cool stuff this week. I got to ride the bus for the 1^st time and it was fun. We took pictures haha. We were at the hospital which is 68 blocks from where we needed to be so we were like lets try the bus. We didn’t know where to get on so we just went and waited at a random bus stop and when that bus came he told us that it was a different bus then the one we wanted so long story short we ended up getting home on the bus and it was a cool mission first.

We also had like 6 less active people come to church and it was great to get to have them. Also C*, one of our recent converts went to the temple! So that was great. We haven’t been able to contact him since but I’m sure he liked it. That was a really big blessing this week that he got to go to the temple.

Well my time is up and I have to go but I love ya’ll and hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Birks