Awesome yet stressful!

Heller!

First things first. A lot of missionaries say "Heller" here and it is super funny! I have officially been on my mission for 2 months! Sometimes it is hard to believe and other times it has definitely been 2 months!

This week was awesome yet stressful! We pretty much had our week booked up with service and meetings! We had a STM meeting which is where the zone gets together and the Zone Leaders give a training. We helped 2 people move furniture on Tuesday. We went to the Food Bank and did service for a few hours there like we usually do every Wednesday. On Thursday we had Zone Conference from 9-3! Yes the meeting was really that long! you get used to it when you're a missionary! We had District meeting Friday and then Helped the Hernandez Family, the only active members we have in our area, move out of the ward. It really sucks because they always let us stop by and get a drink or take a little break. We also helped them finish moving on Saturday morning.

This week we received a lot of revelation on what to focus on. Throughout all of the meetings we had, we talked about involving the members and working with less actives. I didn't know that the members really had that much importance in missionary work. When you think about it, The members are the ones become friends with those who are new to the church. Nobody wants to go to church alone. It is like school with no friends! Members are the fellow shippers of everyone we teach! We have a handful of less active members in our area! This week was super busy that we weren't able to see a lot of people but this week we are going to focus on taking members out with us everyday to see our investigators and less active members.

In case you didn't know, Elder Richard G. Scott passed away. That means that this weekend we will get 3 new apostles!?  Although it is sad to lose a member from the quorum of the 12, That means that the Lord is up to something...

We have the opportunity to hear from our Living Prophet this weekend. Every talk that will be given this weekend is directed by the Spirit!! They Quorumn of the 12 doesn't get together and talk about topics for General Conference. They all listen to the Spirit and end up on the same page! Is that cool or what? Do NOT miss conference!

If you have anyone that has been interested in the Gospel or has been asking about our religion, Invite them to watch Conference with you! There is no better way for them to feel the spirit than listening to our Prophet!

Thomas S. Monson is our Modern Day Living Prophet! I know that without a doubt! He receives revelation for the entire church. I know that your questions will be answered this weekend!

Find people who are interested in the Gospel! Give them a Book of Mormon or bear them your testimony! In Doctrine and Covenants Section 100:5-8 It talks about the spirit telling us what to say and what to do.

I invite everyone to read that scripture! If we live our lives in harmony with the gospel the Lord will bless us with his spirit! When we take the sacrament each week we renew our covenants and are cleansed of our sins. He promises us that we will have His spirit to be with us.

I came across a quote by President Ezra Taft Benson said; "For if the Book of Mormon is true, Then Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was his Prophet, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, and it is being led today by a prophet receiving revelations".

The Church is true, Amen!

Sincerely, Elder Brisk

That is all.

Elder Karr was very sleepy before Church!

This week we had the opportunity to go to the Temple with our recent convert Lance! He is the coolest dude ever! His first time doing baptisms for the dead and he loved it! He was angry about wearing the jumpsuit though!

I got to experience the Taco Truck! They also have cow tongue in case you are interested!

My First Ghetto Gas Station! They also had beer salt just in case you wanted to spice it up a bit!

This week's random church

Every Member a Missionary

Heller!

It's official! I have been out for 1 transfer now! Tuesday will be my 2 month mark! Last Sunday we got Transfer calls to see who would be getting transferred. The only change in our zone was Sister Garner. She got transferred to the Village ward. Now we have Sister Johnson. She has been on her mission for 11 months and she is a Spanish speaking missionary so her and Elder Karr like to talk in Spanish. Elder Karr tried to teach me Spanish but it didn't work out. I am going to stick with English!

Since transfers were last Wednesday, 28 new missionaries flew in on Tuesday. Elder Karr and I got to have 4 of them stay the night at our apartment! They all had their blow up mattresses and blankets. We made them breakfast burritos in the morning before the got picked up to go meet there new companions. They were pretty funny! Maybe I will get to be companions with them! I guess we will have to see.

I had a really good week! We had a quite a few appointments this week and only 2 of them flopped. We were able to reschedule them for this week though! Every Thursday we set goals for the upcoming week. This week we met almost all of our goals and we even went above our goal in some spots! We had 10 less active members at church! Sister Valdez, the less active we have been focusing on, came to church again Sunday. We are teaching her 9 year old daughter Elisa and they want her to get baptized in October when her grandpa comes. She has had the lessons a few times apparently so she remembered most of what we taught her but not all of it.

On Thursday we took our recent convert, Percy, to IHOP. Elder Karr and I got 2 gift cards but we had no way to get to IHOP. We decided to take Percy and buy him dinner. After dinner we went to Book of Mormon class. This week was our turn to teach. We had a lesson on prayer and it was fantastic! Percy liked it and is realizing that he needs to get his butt back to church!

Sunday night Elder Karr and I were knocking doors in a neighbor hood. We were walking and this lady crossed our paths. She look at us and said, "Oh Mormons! I know you guys got a Book of Mormon on you. I need a new one because I lost mine!". Elder Karr gave her the one he had in his hand and then she said, "Thank you." and walked away. Elder Karr and I looked at each other like uh what just happened!? Then I yelled "Mam!" and walked towards her and asked her if I could give her a card with our number on it incase she had any questions about the Book of Mormon or would like to talk with us. She said "Ok" and then walked off. It was funny!

We had a meeting with the Bishop on Sunday. We talked about how the work in this area has slowed down the past few months. We realized that we need the members to do there part. I referred back to my farewell talk. "Every Member a Missionary!" The members are the ones who really do the work. Without the members we don't have anyone to fellowship our investigators. We came up with a few ways to get the members more involved in missionary work.

As members, we need to take every opportunity we get to share the gospel. Invite someone to church, Pray for someone you think can use the gospel in their lives, share your testimony, give the missionaries referrals! ANYTHING! We give a lot of people pass along cards and they pass them out like candy!

My challenge for you this week is to be more involved in missionary work. Find ways to share the gospel with those you come in contact with. Pray for opportunities to share the gospel and the lord will put people in your path!

Sincerely, Elder Brisk

That is all.

Elder Karr and I trying to find souls in the ghetto...

Our last group picture before we said goodbye to Sister Garner!

The new crew of the OKC 2nd Ward! #SouthSide

This is Sister Garner's replacement, Sister Johnson.

I put every letter I get on my wall of letters!

What, What, What, What

This weeks random church sign.

Be a PIG in the Gospel

Heller!

This week was so much better than last week! We found 4 new investigators this week. We got Jesus and Elisa Hernandez who are a really young solid family! They have two little girls ages 2 and 9 months. They told us that they have their faith but they are open to learning more about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. We taught them the restoration and they understood it very well. We are going to go back and teach them the Plan of Salvation and tell them that they can have there family for eternity! 

Our other investigators, moved from Midwest City into our area. They are trying to get financial support from the church but apparently they have been doing this for a few years now. Our bishop told us about there situation and so Elder Karr and I are going to go to our appointment with them and teach them the restoration and see if they are really investigating or just need support. They told us that they set a baptism date for October 10 and they really want to keep that. We got them a ride to church and then they started asking for money for rent and groceries so bishop told sister walker to tell them she couldn't give them a ride. We felt really bad for getting sister Walker involved. We told the Garner's that they would have to take the responsibility of getting to church. They took the responsibility and called sister Walker begging for a ride and she brought them Sunday. Like I said we have to be very careful about teaching them.

We got to do a lot of service this week! Wednesday we went to the Food Bank. Elder Karr and I got to sort through produce in the back room. I have never hated vegetables more. There were a lot of moldy oranges and things like that. The supervisor told us to judge the produce by deciding if it is something we would eat or not. Elder Karr said "I hate all of this so do I throw it away?" It was really funny! If you remember back to my first week when I went and helped a family clean out this hoarder house well guess what? We did it again! This time the whole zone came and we went ham on the garage! This time we didn't have to eat the nasty peanut butter frosting cake. We had donuts and pizza. Great combination huh! Brother Anderson, who is cleaning the hoarder house, always calls Elder Karr "Brother Karr" and it is funny!

We had dinner with Bishop Gillespie and his family on Sunday. They are the nicest family ever! Bishop Gillespie is in the Air Force and since he has been here for 3 years he is moving. They are going to North Dakota and everybody in the ward is unhappy about it. On fast Sunday some people said they were fasting for the Gillespie's to stay. Everyone is really going to miss them!

The theme this Sunday in Sacrament was being diligent in our callings. One of the speaker started saying "We need to be pigs like the Gates family." Everyone started laughing and the speaker told us to hear him out. He went on to say that pigs just eat everything. We need to be pigs in our callings by working as hard as we can. Even though we may not like our callings we have to fulfill our responsibilities. My challenge to you this week is to be a PIG in the gospel by exercising your faith. Read the scriptures, pray, share your testimony! I know that if we are PIGS in the gospel we will be blessed and you will see those blessings as you exercise your faith. The church is true!

Sincerely, Elder Brisk

That is all.

Picture with our recent convert Conor before he went to college

My District from Zone Temple Day

My whole Zone at Zone Temple Day

Yes that is me. #CarWashPro

This weeks random church sign...something to think about

This was our pet caterpillar we had for 10 minutes

Tough days...but something is on the horizon

Heller!

I have been in the mission field for a month! It is crazy how time flies by when you're working hard.

This past week was alright. Wednesday and Thursday were probably the toughest days I have had on my mission so far. We only got to teach our investigator Terry. The previous week we invited him to pray and decide about a baptism date. He was excited and willing to do so and when we followed up with him Thursday he just said he hadn't thought about baptism at all and he just wants to finish the Book of Mormon along with some other concerns he has. I was so frustrated with him because he has been taught by the missionaries for 6 months and he already knows that the Book of Mormon is true. We just have to continue to be patient with him and teach him what he wants to know. It is really hard when we don't get to teach. We ride our bikes around in the heat and it will be the death of me. To top off my bad few days of not being able to find people to teach and riding bikes around the entire area we had Book of Mormon class. Every Thursday night we have a Book of Mormon class and I had prepared the lesson for last week. We got to Book of Mormon class and nobody showed up. Usually we have a great turn out but not a single person was there. I sat there confused, angry, discouraged, depressed, and every other emotion out there. I wanted to come home so bad. I was done with riding my bike, I was done wasting my time out here where nobody wants to hear our message. I was just done with everything. After thinking to myself and talking with my companion we were able to learn from those past few days. We no longer feel those emotions we had.

On Labor Day we had a zone P-day where the entire zone came to the church and we had a district volleyball tournament. We also had a huge Nerf gun war and that relieved my stress! I love my district so much!

We have been focusing on finding new investigators. We have potentials and we are pretty sure one of them blocked us so we can't contact them. Some peoples children. Something is on the horizon. Elder Karr and I know that something great is going to happen soon and we are determined to keep being obedient and diligent in the work.

I had the opportunity to give a blessing to one of our less active members, sister Valdez. Honestly I was terrified to give a blessing. I didn't know what to do and I didn't want to screw up. She is going through a really difficult time in her life right now but she continues to amaze me by how devoted she is to keep us coming by and keep reading the scriptures and praying. She had a bad experience at church one time and we have really been working on getting her to start coming back. Out of no where she told us she wanted her baby boy to be blessed and her daughter to be baptized. SHE CAME TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY! Her baby boy got blessed and Elder Karr and I sat in on the blessing. My first baby blessing ever! She came with her daughter and her husband who left her, hence the hard time she is having. After sacrament meeting we went to talk to her and there was a lady with her. We went to see who it was and apparently her mother drove 700 miles from new mexico to come to the blessing and didn't even tell her. She told us to keep working on getting her daughter back to church and then started walking out the door to go home. We were all confused and sister Valdez told her kids to go get her as she walked out the door.

I am learning so much from my mission already. My testimony is growing and I am building my faith so much! I know that this restored gospel is true. I know that it brings happiness and you will see that happiness if you live it. The church is true! Amen.

Sincerely, Elder Brisk

That is all.

This is my lovely district!

Left to right: Me, Sister Snyder, Sister Boulter, Sister Baldwin, Sister Garner, Elder Karr