Elder Morgan is getting transfered

HELLER!

Once again another week has flown by! I have to admit that starting a new transfer in a new area made time slow down a little bit but now it is speeding right back up!

Transfer calls where Sunday night and we found out that Elder Morgan is getting transferred to Duncan. We are really mad about it because we all love being each others companions. We were hoping we would stay at least 1 more transfer together but President decided to crush that dream!  Elder Morgan is pretty bummed about leaving. When we went to bed last night he just covered himself under his blankets and said if he doesn't get up in the morning then don't talk to him. He got up so we can talk to him!  He also keeps coming up to Bob (Elder Richey), We always call Elder Richey Bob. Along with a few other people from the branch, but Elder Morgan comes up to hug us and then he says he doesn't want to go. It is pretty sad 

This past week we did quite a bit of finding. Unfortunately it was a little windy which made it cold but we survived! We didn't find any new investigators through our finding efforts but we were able to get a referral from our mission president. About 2 weeks ago President Walkenhorst sent Elder Morgan, Bob, and I an email telling us about a lady named Susan Flackman that he wanted us to go see. Susan has had exposure to the church because she has family members who are members of the church. We gave Susan a call and she seemed excited to talk with us and she told us she would look at her schedule and give us a call. Well she didn't call so this week we went over one evening to see if she was home and she was! We talked with her and her 7 year old grandson on the porch. She told us that she is facing trials and challenges in her life that she doesn't understand why she has to go through them. We were able to share a little bit about the gospel with her and help her see that challenges are part of life. The important thing for us to remember is that we aren't going to be given a trial that we can't overcome.

Susan's spirit was lifted and she wasn't feeling depressed anymore. She started to say how it sucks because we don't have a church in Alva. We told her that we do have a church in Alva and it just so happens to be about 3 blocks from her house. She got so excited and said that she is going to come to church Sunday and that she was bringing her grandson because hanging out with Grandma is cooler then hanging out with the family. Hopefully we will be able to go over this week and teach Susan and the rest of her family she is living with.

IT'S A SMALL WORLD! 

When Elder Morgan, Bob, and I were tracting one day a truck pulled up by us and rolled the window down. There was 2 girls who said Hi to us and I recognized the girl sitting in the passenger seat! I went to school with her from 7th to 12th grade and she worked at good ole Buck's Ace Hardware with me. Her name is Amanda Leavitt but she goes by Mandi. She told us that they saw us walking and decided to say Hi since she is moving around a

 little bit. Then she saw Bob and said "Hey you guys got a new one!" I was confused and decided she didn't recognize me. Maybe because she was talking to Elder Morgan but I was tripping out because I can't possibly have gone to school and worked with someone from Hurricane Utah and have run into them in Alva Oklahoma which has a population of about 5,000. The rest of the day Elder Morgan was jealous that I knew someone from home and I was still processing how this could be in my mind. Elder Morgan sent Mandi a text and asked her when we could come by and she said we could come by this week.

Wednesday night we were at dinner at the Smiley's and President Johnson, our branch president, President Johnson, tried calling us but we decided it could wait until after dinner. Then he tried again and Elder Morgan didn't answer it and this loving group of missionaries started arguing over who had to call him back because Elder Morgan lost nose goes and then he did it so he wouldn't have to. Elder Morgan called President Johnson back, slid the phone across the table to us and ran to the bathroom so Bob ran away to and I answered the phone. Turns out President Johnson wanted to talk to Elder Morgan so he could ask him to speak in sacrament meeting  That is what happens when you don't honor nose goes 

On Thursday we had to go to Enid for the second time this week. We had exchanges with the Zone Leaders and I got to go with Elder Curay. Elder Curay has been one of my Zone Leaders my whole mission. He was in OKC with me and got transferred to the Enid zone with me. Elder Curay and I did a lot of knocking doors. Elder Curay stepped into a little dip in the grass at this one house and it ended up being a pit and he fell into it. Luckily it was deep enough he didn't fall on his face! 

Well if running into 1 basher in Alva wasn't enough we ran into another one Sunday night! This guy just kept going off about us being "Elder" so and so. Apparently we aren't Elders because we are young, not married, and have 0 kids. We tried to help him understand the scriptures better but he wouldn't have it. It was funny because Bob was throwing all this stuff at him (Scriptures not actual objects) Then I watched the guys wife walk outside and grab some bibles out of the car and walk back inside. Then she came back out after a minute and gave him a paper with scriptures to use against us!! Bob really gets into bashing! It is really funny! He wasn't going to allow him to use all these scriptures against him. It was so funny to watch him bash with the guy. Elder Morgan and I gave up when we realized he wasn't going to listen to us. Oh Bob! 

Well that was my week!

Oh and I forgot my camera that is why there isn't any pictures this week!

Sincerely, Elder Brisk

That is all.

7 month mark!!

Heller!

 Today is my 7 month mark!! 

I can't believe that I have been out for 7 months. It seems like a lifetime and then it seems like a week. I guess it just depends on the day! Now I can officially start saying I have been out for 7 months.

This week flew by like a jet plane! 

I can't believe that it is already Monday again!? I don't even remember what I did this week. Probably something along the lines of missionary work.

Well on Tuesday we went to help the Richardson's with their house like usual. We got to carry a bunch of Drywall inside and insulate the rest of the house. We told them that we needed to be home by 5:30 and they signed up to feed us dinner. Little did we know she had a purpose for that and since we were in Kiowa Kansas we didn't have our vehicle so we were stuck there from 12:30-8:30PM! The branch wasn't to happy about that so our ward mission leader told us that if we ever get stuck in a situation like that again to call him and he will come rescue us. Our branch president wasn't very happy about it either. Sister Richardson came to sacrament though! First time in a long time. Now if we could just get brother Nephi Richardson to come to church we would be fine. You would think having a name like Nephi would make you an active member. Some peoples children...

Let's skip to the high light of this week...

We got to go have a sleep over in Stillwater, OK Friday night. It was terrible because the couch was the worst thing ever and the floor needed vacuumed and I was not about to sleep on it. I managed to survive though! We woke up at 4 so all 7 of us could get ready with one bathroom and be at the church by 5:15. somehow Elder Morgan, Elder Richey, and I were the first ones there. We even beat the charter bus! The Bus showed up and so did all the other missionaries and we headed for Tulsa. I feel asleep on the bus and apparently was out. I felt really good though! We arrived in Tulsa an hour early. Good thing the whole mission plus the Arkansas Bentonville Mission was there so we had a lot of people to talk to. Then Elder D. Todd Christopherson of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles arrived! along with Elder Southward, and Elder Lynn G. Robins of the Quorum of the Seventy. Everyone got to shake their hands and Elder Christopherson stared into my soul!! 

Everyone came ready to accept being rebuked by an apostle and change but He didn't even rebuke us! He just thanked us for being full time missionaries! He is a pretty funny guy! He was the 3rd person to speak to us so when he got up to the podium he told us to go ahead and stand up, stretch a little bit. So everyone stands up and Elder Christopherson started doing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes and we all laughed. 

Elder Christopherson said that the First Presidency and Quorum of the 12 Apostles are very grateful for us because all 15 of them couldn't share the gospel with the whole world. He talked about how in the scriptures Heavenly Father says this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Heavenly Father was pleased with his son Jesus Christ and He is pleased with us as missionaries! I never realized the extent of the word "pleased" I have been studying about that a little bit these past few days. 

In Hebrews 11:6 it says

6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

 

We should have a desire to please God! He is our loving Heavenly Father who created us and the world we live in. We need to develop faith in Him to be able to please him. We can develop faith by doing the simple primary answers, Go to church, Pray, Read the scriptures, and Keep the commandments! Once we have done the best we can we will know that He is pleased with us.

On Sunday we had our Stake President, President Bowman, attend our little branch. We had 50 people at church! That is a record high in the time that I have been here! In Priesthood he taught the Plan of Salvation to our investigator Tim and it was awesome! I learned more about it then I already knew and I have been teaching it for 7 months! Tim was taking notes and everything! I can't wait for Tim and Gwenna to get baptized! They told us that every time we go to their house for a lesson they will be feeding us and she is a super good cook so we didn't object!

Well that is all for this week! Hope you learned something and developed a desire to change. Or maybe you got rebuked. Sorry not sorry.

Oh remember my nasty nail from December? When Elder Neves slammed it in a tail gate? Don't worry only 2 months later it finally fell off 

Sincerely Elder Brisk

That is all.

TULSA!!! OKC is better because we have the Devon tower.

This is what happens when you try to get your suits dry

 cleaned for an apostle. I literally spelled my name for her

I tried to get a picture with Elder D. Todd Christopherson but he was to 

quick so I got a side shot of him! Probably his good side too.

Sometimes Elder Richey falls asleep on road trips...Ok he falls asleep A LOT!

Some rules are made to be broken. Unless they are God's...Don't break those!

The most exciting week of my mission!

HELLER!

Greetings from Alva Oklahoma! I hope everyone had an awesome week because I sure did! This was probably the most exciting week of my mission. I had so much fun this week and I am now going to proceed to tell you how...

For those who have special eyes and need there reading glasses, This would be the time to put them on  

This week the elders and I decided to pack up and go out on the town for a little while, by that I mean Elders Morgan, Richey, and I decided to go spend our morning finding people to teach and baptize! We weren't having any luck knocking doors so Elder Morgan told us about this guy who bashed with them one time. Elder Richey, being the most wise and knowledgeable out of all of us, decided that we should go set the "basher" straight on some things. We went to his house and knocked on his door and he came out with a smile and started shaking our hands while asking us what our names were. We told him our missionary names and then he said no he wanted our real names so we told him. He then asked us if we believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and of course we told him yes! Then he asked us how we came to know that and we told him. Then the bashing started happening. Elder Morgan and I sorta stood back and watched Elder Richey and the "basher" go at it. I say basher because he never told us his name. It was pretty exciting and he was talking very loud! At one point the neighbor girl walked outside of her house looking at us laughing so Elder Morgan and I started laughing while Elder Richey held strong and continued to win the bash. Elder Holland says "Don't bash, Don't bash, Don't bash, but when you bash, bash to win!" He accepted a card and took it inside his house, therefore we won! We may or may not have went back later that night to drop a Book of Mormon on his doorstep....We really just wanted to give him one more opportunity to be saved. The creepy thing is we tried going back a few hours later to drop the Book of Mormon off and he started opening his door or something so we ran away! Then we went back later that night and he was sitting in his car outside his house with his lights on so we got creeped out because he was definitely waiting for us. So we went and parked outside our house, planned for the next day and then went and did the deed. (The deed is planting the BOM on his porch)

BOM stands for Book of Mormon. We didn't really try to bomb his house. That is not missionary like and just RUDE! Plus we already won the bash 

We went to dinner at the Smok Shak with our investigator Bill. Him and his wife Maxine remind me so much of my grandparents! We had a great time and the food was really good! Bill got Calf Fries! For anyone who knows what those are...Yes I did try them and they were pretty good! If you do not know what calf fries are then keep reading this lovely blog and I will attach a picture that will tell you what Calf Fries are. While we were eating with Bill another one of our investigators walked in, Jimmy, the guy whose butt is always hanging out. Then it got really awkward...

Bill: Do you guys know him?

Us: Yeah that's our investigator Jimmy!

Bill: What is his last name?

Us: Simmons

Bill: Does he live kiddie corner from the school?

Us: Yeah!

Bill: Yeah they have there eye on him, They think he is a child molester.

Us: Look at each other.... *laughs..... That makes so much sense!

We figured out why he likes Elder Morgan so much!! He only ever talks to him and will ask him how we are doing. He gave Elder Morgan a pack of gum the other day after we had dinner with Bill, but didn't give Elder Richey or I one. We didn't want one because we just kept thinking of how he may or may not be a child molester. Elder Morgan's mom told him to be careful a while ago. We decided it is mothers instinct.

We taught our investigator Shyann this week at Sister Green's house. Sister Green is one of my favorite people and there are 2 reasons why.

Reason 1: She makes Shyann and us lunch every Thursday so we can teach her.

Reason 2: She is the relief society president and they are throwing a big birthday part for the whole branch to attend and she said that they are making CAFE RIO! The are making everything that Cafe Rio has because they got the recipe. I haven't had Cafe Rio forever! I AM SO EXCITED! March 12th can't come fast enough!

Shyann is so ready to be baptized! She is waiting for 2 Elders that taught her to come back and baptize her. They made her promise not to get baptized without them. (Stupid missionaries!) One of them tore his ACL and just had surgery so he has to recover and then they will be here.

We got to go to the Oklahoma City Temple on Thursday! We went as a zone and it was a lot of fun! Missionaries + Temple = Happy Missionaries!

After we went through the Temple Elders Morgan, Richey, and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch. I haven't been to B DUBS in forever! Plus it was 69 cent boneless wing Thursday. I felt right at home spending my money at Buffalo Wild Wings on a Thursday.

JOY GOT BAPTIZED!!! They got the font fixed so we had warm water to baptize her in! It hasn't been used in over a year so good thing we got it fixed so we can start baptizing the town of Alva! Just before the baptism started there was an earthquake! I don't think I have ever felt one before so it was super cool! We all jumped in a chair and felt the ground shake! Elder Richey said it doesn't count because he didn't feel it so he was pretty mad about that. Sister Armstrong told Joy that the earth moved on her special day.  Elder Morgan got to help Elder Wheelwright baptize her. She was so happy because she has been counting down the days! She even bore her testimony during Sacrament on Sunday!

On Saturday after the baptism we went and taught a Potential Investigator named Jaime and her husband Craig. She told us she did some research and said it was ok to talk about the bible and just shut us down but we ended up teaching them about the Book of Mormon anyway. THEY KNOW THE BIBLE WELL! We spent 1 1/2 hours at there house teaching them because they would bring up stuff in the bible contrary to what we would say so we had to throw verses back at her and help her understand what the scriptures she was reading to us meant. We were sorta bashing in a way but at the same time we weren't. I have never studied for an Investigator so hard in all of my mission life! We think they are going to get baptized though! WE HAVE FAITH! We are so ready to go back and prove her wrong on everything she tried to stump us with! 

On Sunday night we went and taught Gwenna and Tim Kimball. Sister Johnson (Branch Presidents crazy wife) has been talking to Gwenna for a while and she said she would love to have us over for dinner and to talk about the church. We went over and she made Chicken fried steak, mash potatoes, rolls, corn, broccoli, squash and cucumbers, and then Sister Johnson made a cake. It was one the best dinners I have had on my mission! We taught them the Restoration and Sister Johnson was awesome! She served a mission so she is a professional! We invited them to be baptized on March 26th and they said YES!!

Tim and Sister Johnson kept teasing each other and at one point (after the lesson) Sister Johnson called Tim a pig and he just stood up and stormed away and brings out this pig! They have a pet pig named FRED! It was the funniest thing ever! Who just has a pet pig inside their trailer?? I love the Kimball's so much!!

Well that was my awesome week! Sorry I wrote a book but I hope you enjoyed it!

Keep being an awesome Child of God!

Sincerely, Elder Brisk

That is all.

Temple Trip! 

Elder Richey's first time at Buffalo Wild Wings 

Joy's Baptism! The day the earth moved, literally!!!

This is us eating Calf Fries. (Cow balls)

This is Scruffy. We found him on the road and he followed us for 5 blocks to our 

house and ran inside. We were apostate and had a pet for 15 minutes. 

We took him back to where we found him and his owner was looking for him.

Joy's dog precious looks like a sausage 

This is Fred the pig. 

The Atonement on my mind

HELLER!

This past week was a pretty good! We have been teaching Joy and a lot of other people!

Joy called us on Monday crying because she wasn't going to be able to join the church and we ran over there (by ran I mean drove to her house) and talked to her. She told us she didn't have enough money to pay her tithing and we told her she didn't need to pay it until after she is baptized and we told her that she is going to be able to join the church and she has been so happy ever since! She has been off of Coffee and Cigarettes for 4 days now! Only 5 more days to go!

We have been trying to get the font figured out for the baptism. The hot water isn't working...like at all.... So she might be baptized in really really cold water. We have someone coming to fix it but when he is coming nobody knows. It may be this week or it may be next week. Hopefully it is this week!! The font hasn't been used in a year or longer and that is unacceptable! We should be having baptisms out the Wazoo!

Elder Richey and I got to meet Shyann! She came to church on Sunday after she stood us up for lunch Thursday. We were suppose to have a lesson/lunch at sister greens but her boyfriend had to go to the hospital and of course she had to go with him. She is really cool though! She should have been baptized like yesterday but don't worry. We will get her baptized soon enough.

On Friday we had interviews with President Walkenhorst. It went really good! Then we had exchanges with Woodward and Bob (Elder Richey) went to Woodward and Elder Hansen came here. We had fun on exchanges even though all we did was drywall for brother Richardson again! We are a lot better then last time! Just don't hire us to put drywall up at your house...

We got a new investigator named Miranda. She requested a Bible but she also accepted a Book of Mormon and she is interested in hearing our message. We are going to give her a call this week. We also went to see a potential investigator named Jaime and she was home! She told us she is an accountant and so she is really busy right now but we got her number and she told us to give her a call this week! She was so excited to see us and that made me so excited to go back and teach her the gospel!!

This week during my studies I have been keeping the Atonement on my mind. As we increase our understanding of the atonement our understanding of the gospel will increase. For me understanding the atonement will help me to be a better missionary because understanding the need for the atonement and the gospel makes me want to share it with EVERYONE! Everyone is a child of God and he loves all of us!

Jesus Christ is our savior and I know he lives! I know that through the atonement we can be cleansed of our sins and return to live with our father in Heaven. 

Sincerely, 

Me

This kid

Elder Brisk

Your favorite missionary

That is all.

         

My new mission President and his wife as of July 1st 2016

My companion wears a suit that he got at Goodwill (basically DI) 

That is 543567890 times to big for his body! It makes him look like a fat man!

Elder Morgan likes to dress like a women on Monday mornings...LOL!