Elder Kyler Brisk : Fire, New Friend & Miracles

HELLER!

I am sure you are all wondering about the fire up by Alva.

So here is the low down from a missionary stand point. Once upon a time a random Oklahoma guy, We'll call him "Guy" was driving down highway 64 between Alva and Freedom Oklahoma. Something blew on Guy's vehicle causing a spark which caught the grass on the side of the road. Now you have to keep in mind that this is Oklahoma and the wind is blowing, of course. The wind caught the fire and the fire started rolling throughout the plains. At one point we were told that the fire was 40 miles long and the mouth of the fire was 4 miles wide. A few towns up in Kansas were evacuated. Then came the game changer. The wind decided to start blowing south. At this time the fire was directly North of Alva. The fire crews didn't have a chance to fight the fire so they got all the equipment they could to dig ditches so the fire would stop spreading. We had a member text us an estimated 15 text messages in a row telling us that they were going to start using city water to fight closer fires and the power may go out. She was explaining protocol for doomsday and we simply told her that if we had to evacuate we would go to the missionaries apartment in Enid. Alva was completely surrounded by smoke for a few days. It has mostly cleared out now and we are getting back to the normal amount of smoke filled Oklahoma air. Homes, Land, and animals were lost. Please keep those affected by the fire in your prayers.

On Tuesday evening we got to take the trek to Jet, Oklahoma to have dinner and a lesson with Gwenna and Tim at the Johnson's. This week a lot of our plans have been falling through and so we decided to head for Jet even though we were going to be early. We ended up stopping to take some scenic pictures and we still ended up being there a little early. Sister Johnson was so happy we were early because she wasn't ready for dinner so she had us helping her finish preparing dinner! We taught them the Word of Wisdom and committed them to live it. Gwenna told us that she decided that Sunday would be the day she stops forever!! Now this was a surprise to Tim because she didn't tell him..yet. Tim understood the lesson but he is still struggling with accepting Joseph Smith. Please keep Gwenna and Tim in your prayers so that they will be able to be BAPTIZED!

Does anybody remember our crazy investigator Jay who we made muffins with? SURE YOU DO! I mean how could you forget Jay? Well on Thursday we helped his son load a U haul because he is moving to Shawnee, Oklahoma. Having Jay there made it quite interesting! At one point he was sitting in a chair and started smoking so I told him to spit it out and he threw it into the drive way and gave me a sad face and I just smiled!

Sister Smiley's son Isaac was here from Vernal for his brothers baptism this weekend. On Friday he wanted to come out with us so we took him out. He had so much fun! We asked him after a while of him knocking doors and what not if he wanted to go home and he said NO! We went to teach a guy named Gene who is a total Okie talker! We were in there forever and Isaac fell asleep for a minute. Gene didn't see it but we did and it was funny! Isaac became one of our new best friends!!

On Saturday morning Alva had some Easter activities in the morning and we saw it as a great opportunity to talk to everyone!! We actually ended up participating in one of the activities! They had a forklift with a truck bed lifted high in the sky, red neck right! They dropped eggs and you had to catch it without it spattering everywhere! Elder McVey caught his and then Elder Richey and I were so close but it bounced out of our hands. Luckily it didn't splatter all over us. Keep in mind that we were wearing our suits during this shin dig. Elder McVey was doing good and made it down to the last 6 people. We had the crowd chanting "Utah!" but unfortunately the egg splattered all over him! He will forever have an egg stain on his suit coat and tie. We got a lot of exposure though!!

Because of the baptism on Sunday there were a lot of people visiting. We had a grand total of 67 people at church!! WAHOO!!

We had a less active member bring 2 of her friends. Member missionary work!! The fact that it is Easter contributed to the amount of other visitors that attended as well.

Like I said earlier, a lot of our plans have been falling through. After Church we had about an hour where we had to figure out what to do and we did not want to go knock more doors but we knew we had to do something. We dragged our feet towards a street we thought we could knock and then Elder Richey said we should say a prayer first. We folded our arms and Lo! Joy Brown called us and she wanted us to come over and study the Book of Mormon with her! MIRACLES DO HAPPEN!! We got super happy and started RUNNING back to the truck! Joy is a life saver!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter Holiday!!

Go ahead and give yourself a pat on the back for reading this whole email because it was just a wee bit long..

Sincerely, Elder Brisk