Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Missionaries LOVE the Temple!

HELLER!!!

Recently there has been a theft issue with my package(s) If you plan on sending me a package please send it to:

Elder Kyler Brisk
  
503 Magnolia Dr
Alva, OK 73717

You may still send letters to my current address

Elder Kyler Brisk
914 #2 Flynn St
Alva, OK 73717

We had a pretty busy week. Unfortunately we weren't really able to work in our area a whole lot. We had Zone Conference on Wednesday in Stillwater, District meeting in Woodward on Friday and then exchanges with the zone leaders in Enid Friday and Saturday. We did a lot of driving this week.

The zone leaders also gave us a beautiful floral couch. Our apartment is so small we could barely fit it in but on the bright side we have a couch!!! It is ugly but its a couch!!!

We have to go to Enid on Tuesday to have our truck serviced at a Nissan Dealership. Apparently our truck needs a whole new rear axle :)

Elder Bills and I have decided that as missionaries you become a total buzz kill. Since the 4th of July is approaching everyone and their dog has decided to light fireworks EVERY night. Unfortunately it isn't dark until it is about time for us to go to bed so we get to hear A LOT of fireworks before we go to bed :)

At Zone Conference we are now encouraged to do family history every week to find names that we can take to the temple. If our ward/branch is going to the temple and we have names to take to the temple we can go with them. Missionaries LOVE the temple. I don't think there is a way to explain how much missionaries love going to the temple. A good analogy would be like the worlds biggest Taylor Swift fan going to a Taylor Swift concert. I hope that helps you understand the love missionaries have for the temple.

Don left for his training again and we were unable to see him before he left. Now we have to wait clear until Saturday to see him :(

We currently have 2 investigators that are still on date for their baptism. Drexel and Shyann. We have been unable to see Drexel so we aren't sure if he will make his date or not. Shyann is still on date because her date is for November 5th of 2016. Why so far out you ask? Because she feels like she needs to wait until then. We don't like it either but whatever!

Have a great week!!

Elder Brisk

That is all



Our goal is for all 3 of us to be companions one day :)
Elder Nicholas, Me, and Elder Bills



Elder Neves goes home in 2 weeks.  I'm going to miss that Peruvian boy!


Other Random pics from Zone Conference.
Elder Van Halder and I

Elder Bledsoe, Sister whose name I forgot, Sister Rees, Sister Weber, and I
Plus other random people in the back ground..


    We said Goodbye to President and Sister Walkenhorst at Zone Conference. 😭
                                               The Mansell's will arrive on Thursday this week!



Elder Bills fell asleep on the way home from zone conference and I scared him SOOOOOO bad!! 😂




Exchanges with Elder Mangum! He said he wasn't going to eat a cookie



My companion moaning and having compulsions in his sleep 😂😂


Once again we thought Alva was going to burn down.




Stillwater has Transformers
















Tuesday, June 21, 2016

I love Alva and I love this branch.....I hate humidity!

Heller!!

Sorry last week's email was terrible. Zone P-day was so fun though! We did little minute to win it games and somehow I got chosen to participate in the paper airplane game. The goal was to make a paper airplane and fly it as far as you can in a minute. Well I use to be really good at that when I was a child but somehow I forgot how to make a good paper airplane so I threw a snow ball with wings. No we did not get last place in that game thank you very much.

We also played water balloon volleyball and that was really fun! President Walkenhorst showed up out of nowhere and everyone was wondering what the heck he was doing there. When President Walkenhorst calls you or you see him somewhere other than where you expect him you evaluate yourself in hopes that you realize he isn't going to rebuke you.

Elder Mendlove and I were put in charge to gather everyone up to play ultimate Frisbee and since missionaries are oblivious to people yelling at them we stood on the stage and sang the ABC's together. It was actually really fun because everyone started clapping their hands and beat boxing to it. That still didn't get everybody's attention so I pulled out the old primary trick and said if you can hear me touch your nose and some did and then I said if you can hear me fold your arms and everyone was folding their arms looking at me and then I said if you can hear me run outside to play ultimate Frisbee and this group of missionaries rampaged through the door outside. #PrimarySkills

We went to Beedles Nurisng home to help the Old folk play bingo on Tuesday. We hadn't gone to help out the past few times and when we walked in everyone about fell out of their wheel chairs! They were so happy to see us! I guess if someone helped me play bingo I would love them too!

We met with Don this week and we decided to teach him the Word of Wisdom. It was awesome except for the fact we sat outside on the porch for this lesson. Was Don basically committing himself to live the Word of Wisdom worth all the sweat? Of course it was!

We knew that Don was going to be doing a training since he is working at the prison and they decided to start it this past Sunday. Don wasn't able to come to church and he was actually pretty bummed about it. The training is 6 weeks long and he will come home Friday nights and leave on Sunday afternoons. So hopefully this Sunday Don and his family will be able to come to church but we will only get to see him on Saturday nights now :'(

Humidity is the worst thing ever. When it is over 100 degrees with humidity you might as well curl up and die. Elder Bills and I were getting home at 9:30 one night and it was 98 degrees with 50000% humidity.

THE HOLLAND'S ARE HERE!!!!!!!!!!! 😄😄
Elder and Sister Holland FINALLY arrived on Friday evening. We thought they would have been here on the 11th, and then on Thursday so FINALLY they are here. They really like their new home which is good because if they didn't they would of had to trade us apartments and they would HATE ours. Of course I asked Elder Holland if he was related to the apostle and he told me he actually just found out he is not really a Holland so no. That is OK though because I still make apostle jokes to him and he loves it!

On Sunday there was this random guy at church and so I sat by him:

1 because I am a missionary
2 He was sitting in the spot next to mine where I always sit.

Anywho come to find out that he is Randy Stewart from Waynoka and that he hasn't been to church in 20 years. For some reason he just decided that he would be in Alva on Fathers day and would come to sacrament meeting. Everyone in the branch was basically interrogating me on who was sitting by me and when they found out it was a Stewart from Waynoka they couldn't believe it!!

Brother Stewart was so nice! He told us to come by whenever we want :)

Miracles are in the works people! The branch has been praying at 7pm every night for missionary work and we are starting to see it working. I love Alva and I love this branch! Not just because everyone, not just the fathers, got donuts and brownies on fathers day! 😏

Missionary work requires the members and the missionaries working together otherwise it won't be as effective as it should be. Call up your local missionaries and invite them over for dinner or take them to lunch or have them share a message with you and your family! They will love it and I KNOW you will love it too. Volunteer to help them by praying for their investigators or families they are working with. Don't wait to be asked to help. Just do it!

I hope you enjoy the overload of pictures from the last 2 weeks :)

Love Elder Brisk 💙

That is all.


Enid Zone P-Day/STM




Me riding in a combine with the little Sister Anderson 🚜




When a severe storm comes through in the middle of the night but you are dead asleep...😶



Oklahoma Scenery for y'all





Elder Bills drawing of the Alva apartment


Slug #2



Brother Z actually really loves us 💙


McDonald's is our source for the temperature! :)












Monday, June 13, 2016

Alva missionaries aka Alva moving crew!

Heller!

This week was just crazy! That is how I will put it.

Yes we did find another Slug in our apartment and are now looking for a new place to live because ours is being invested by creepy crawlers and it is not worth the rent.

Our truck had to get an oil change and they said there is a bolt broken that will need fixed so they want us to come back to Woodward to get it fixed in a couple weeks and we don't have miles for that! I hate transfers because it makes us lose 320 miles.

Elder Bills finally got to meet Don. We went by his house but his brother who lives next door told us that Gabe had a game so they were at the ball fields and I told Gabe we would watch him play sometime so we went up to the field. Unfortunately the game was over but that worked perfect! We took them to the church which is literally right by the ball fields and gave them a church tour. Don said that he had goosebumps as they looked around the church. It was great! Then we had a spiritual lesson with them where we committed Don, Tristain, and Gabe to be baptized on July 9th and they accepted! WAHOO! Don was very emotional that whole night. It was the best!

This week Elder Bills and I have not been the Alva missionaries but the Alva moving crew. We had to deep clean the Holland's new apartment because we were under the impression they were arriving last Saturday and then we had to move all the furniture from Woodward to Alva in a U haul. Driving the U haul was quite the experience. It didn't have cruise control so my foot was cramping after driving for an hour. The Armstrong's helped us out and gave us root beer floats for our hard work!

We did do an exchange with Woodward this weekend and that consisted of moving all that stuff to Woodward from Alva and then going back to Woodward and then Saturday morning moving their furniture into their new apartment.

We had a lesson with Drexel on Sunday night and we taught him the Plan of Salvation We set a baptism date with him for July 9th as well! It was a great lesson besides the fact that we were bashing with our member while teaching the investigator! In fact at this very moment I am typing this email he is texting us still trying to fight us on the gospel... Never in my entire life have I had to bash with a member of the church. Good thing I love this member or I would rebuke him hard core.

The Hollands will be arriving around Thursday this week and we are super excited to have them in Alva! The branch can't wait for more missionaries!

We have been getting everyone in the branch to say a prayer for missionary work in Alva and missionary opportunities for themselves every night at 7. We are hoping to see some miracles coming from that shortly.

Elder Bills and I are having so much fun! Cows are the funniest thing to us now. It is an inside joke. You just had to be there! We were laying in our beds last night laughing our heads off. Just picture a cattle truck flying by you on the high way and then a cow falling out. That is only half of it 😂🐄😂

Brother Smiley is one of my favorite members. I think we are just a little bit to close. He was telling us about how he woke up pooping his pants one time and Elder Bills and I were on the ground laughing/crying our heads off and he was just calm as can be telling his story. Lets just say he destroyed a truck stop bathroom!

Sorry if this email seems rushed. We had like an hour to email today because we are going to Enid to have some fun with the other missionaries in the zone. I left my camera at home so I am unable to send pictures this week but I will be sure to send them next week!

As President Walkenhorst would say "Love and appreciate ya!"

Elder Brisk

That is all.

Monday, June 6, 2016

Elder Bills has joined me in Alva!

HELLER!

Transfer week is officially over! Elder McVey is now in Del City Oklahoma and Elder Bills has joined me in Alva Oklahoma!

People that can talk for 5 days straight in Oklahoma are called Okie talkers. On our way back from transfers we made the mistake of stopping to visit the Morris family. Brother Morris is an Okie talker. We were literally there for 1.5 hours listening to him talk about people we didn't even know. The funny part is his wife got mad that he wouldn't let us talk so she left and came back about an hour later and we were still there!! She told us to run out the door or we would be late to our next appointment.😂

We also saw Tim and Gwenna Kimball. Tim was the only one home for a little bit so it was good to be able to talk with just him. Gwenna is one of my top favorites. She knew we were there and she just brought us s XL Dr Pepper from Sonic. She knows me so well!! 😄

We were able to teach a guy named Michael Ashbaker who referred himself! He is so solid! He told us that it is time he takes over as the father he should be and involve Christ in his families lives. He told us that he wants to change his life to they way Christ wants him to live. Unfortunately his wife was working and his kids were being apostate at the pool so we only got to teach him. We taught him the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and I have NEVER had an investigator so excited to read the Book of Mormon. He practically told us to leave so he could go read it. We are going back to teach him and his family on Thursday and I am so excited!! #Miracles

Elder Bills and I have had so much fun! This is going to be the best transfer ever! We find a little black jumpy spider in our apartment everyday and he hates spiders! He was going to hit it with his shoe and I screamed when he was about to hit it and I sacred him so bad! I laid on the floor laughing for a few minutes.

We were talking with the Woodward Elders on Sunday night while we were laying in our beds and I looked at the bottom of my bed and their was a freakin SLUG on the floor!! I am not even kidding. It was the biggest slug I have ever seen in my ENTIRE LIFE!! I accidently touched it's nasty slime and I wanted to throw up! Elder Bills and I were freakin out and the Woodward Elders were so confused on what was happening. We may or may not have brutally killed it.... :)

Remember who you are, make good choices!!

"That's Brisk Baby!"

That is all.


Elder Bills and I...plus Isaac and a sno cone :)


This is Jabba the Hutt, the slug we found in our apartment. 




This is a tick we found on Elder McVey the night before he got transferred