Elder Clarke and I continue to see success here in Vernon!!

Heller!!

I have officially been out a year! It is so crazy that I am on the count down end of my mission now. The time has flown by so fast! Of course we celebrated my "birthday" with a braums birthday cake shake :)

What a week it has been! Elder Clarke and I continue to see success here in Vernon!!

Elder Clarke decided he wanted to go hunting for a Frog. So we embarked down to the river where this frog and it's posse lives. This was the biggest frog I have ever seen! We kept getting closer so we could snap a picture of it. Right after I took this picture it went "Wah!" and jumped into the water. *See below for picture of the frog..

Wednesday was the best day of both of our entire missions!!

We started off by seeing Paul. Paul is awesome! We took the Johnson's over with us and talked about the 10 commandments. We talked about how he doesn't like his church and he liked our church. Unfortunately he didn't come to church Sunday. I don't know why. Paul is really cool though! We set a baptism date with him for August 27th!

We went to see a less active girl named Carolyn who lives really close to us. She is missionary crazy and loves getting to know all the new Elders so we have to almost hide from her. She always just wants us to come hangout but we aren't aloud to go over without a 3rd Melchizedek Priesthood holder. So we just go over every Wednesday morning with the Johnson's. They protect me since I am the "New Elder".

Elder Clarke and I decided it was time to eat lunch and we went to Mr. Jim's pizza. It is a buffet place kind of like Cici's. He claims he had a food prompting but I think he just wanted pizza. The guy cleaned up our table when we were getting the next round of food at the buffet table so we had to go get new drinks. The Muse's walked in and we were able to talk with them and get to know them a little bit. All of a sudden Elder Clarke and I both heard Celine Dion coming from the speakers and she was singing the Climax of "My heart will go on". It took everything we had not to bust out in song. Of course we sang that song the rest of the day when we weren't in public!

We went and saw Clay and Brittany. They have been taught forever!! We decided we are just going to baptize or drop everyone so we talked with them and set a baptism date with them for September 3rd! Yay for baptism dates! While we were int he lesson with them we got a missed call.

We called the number back and it was a former investigator named Brandon who was a week away from baptism and then went off the deep end. He is married to a member here and he told us he wants to change and meet with us again. So we ran (by ran I mean drove) over to his house and had a lesson with him. He is so awesome! We were able to set a baptism date with him for August 27th as well!

We decided that we were going to work through dinner and keep up the good work that day! We saw some less active members and committed them to work on either Church attendance, prayers, or scripture study. We are starting small so we can help all of our members receive strong testimonies!

We meet with a guy named Wilbert tonight. We met him the other day trying to visit a less active member and he was really nice! He let us come teach him the restoration and it was the most spiritual lesson I have ever had. He was freakin out about what he was feeling! He was all "I feel so warm and not cause it's 100 degress outside, the hairs on my neck are standing up, I feel all tingly and weird! I AM GETTING GOOSEBUMPS! How am I getting goosebumps it is 100 degrees" He knew that was the spirit and committed to a baptism date on August 27th.

We had a lesson with Ricky Corpus. It wasn't a great lesson. We taught the Word of Wisdom and he was kind of fighting us on it. We weren't sure why because he says he lives it. We may drop him if he doesn't want to continue lessons. We are going over to his house tonight to see if he read the Book of Mormon and prayed about if he wants to be baptized or not.

We saw an investigator named Sar. She is Korea not Korean and she is literally the most awkward human being! She didn't want to learn and said that Elder Clarke seemed nervous to talk to her because he was trying to think of what to do. I said "Hmm" and she said "Hmm" right after I said it and I looked at her and she said "I say Hmm cause you say Hmm!" Literally the funniest most awkward lesson ever!!

At church this random little girl who came to church with her cousin said she wanted to be baptized and I was like uhhh OK where do you live? and we figured out where she lives so we can talk with her and her family!!

This week was full of miracles. Elder Clarke and I are going to baptize everyone!!

Love Elder Brisk 

That is all.

Ricky Corpus!!

TEJAS!!!!!

DAIRY QUEEN!!

Tracting in Seymour selfie's!!!

Taco Bell is bae, Amen.

My family history is complete!!! Yes I really went back this far in my family tree....

Elder Clarke and I are actually related!!

Elder Clarke and I

The frog! 

The best deal in Vernon...NOT!

Goodbye Alva OK...Hello Vernon TX!

TEJAS!!! (TEXAS)

What a week it has been. From packing 4 suitcases worth of crap into 3 suitcases, saying goodbye to my lovely Alva family, and making the 7 hour trek to Texas.

Saying goodbye to my Alva family was rough! Tears were definitely shed and I will miss them so so much! They made a huge impact on my life. I LOVE THAT PLACE!

Elder Clarke is great!! We were best friends from the car ride to Vernon! We are almost the same person! We are constantly laughing at everything! Everyday we have been together has been a successful day!

We cover 2 separate areas. We cover the Vernon and Seymour branch. It is weird attending 2 separate branch's each Sunday. Luckily they are only 2 hours instead of 3. That is still 4 hours of church though! I had to talk in the Vernon Branch Sunday and as I talked all but a few people were just watching me with straight faces. Not even a glimmer of a smile. Then I started baring testimony and everyone was smiling! Key to giving a good talk is just to bare testimony the entire time....That is your advise for the week!

Vernon, Texas...well I don't know what to think about it quite yet. The roads definitely suck worse than Oklahoma and the Oklahoma roads suck worse than Hurricanes. We need a truck in Vernon just to deal with the roads! We have a little Toyota corolla that will be getting retired soon. We named her Gweela. She is a champ! Something on the car vibrates when we drive on the highway/freeway and it is so low to the ground that all the dips in the roads will destroy it if we don't watch out for them. She also takes on birds like a champ!

Funny Story #1

Elder Clarke and I were driving back from Seymour, Texas. All of a sudden a flock of birds came out of nowhere! Literally couldn't have avoided them. I saw them coming and screamed and then Elder Clarke screamed and BOOSH! We slaughtered at least 3 birds going 75mph. We were dying of laughter. Mainly because a member just told us killing animals is against the commandment "Thou shalt not kill". When we got home we looked to see the damage to the front of the vehicle and our grille was halfway popped out of place and a bird heart was lodged in it with a few of its feathers. We laughed again!

Funny Story #2

Elder Clarke and I decided to go leave a note on the Johnson's door (Vernon missionary couple) and as we pulled into the apartment complex there was this guy who was looking at us weirdly as he walked around his apartment building. We parked the car and I got out and looked at him. He instantly plugged his ears with his fingers and ran away!! Then he looked back to see if I was chasing him! LOL I was laughing so hard!

Funny Story #3

My companion thinks he can box the string hanging from the fan that controls the ceiling fan light in our bedroom and it got all wrapped up in the top of it. So being the good companion I am I climbed up there to unwrap it while he laughed at his mistake. As I was untangling the string the ceiling fan blew up inside and sparks went flying! I not only thought I was about to die but Elder Clarke started laughing even harder! Luckily the ceiling fan didn't break and I was able to fix it! It was definitely past bed time so that is why we thought it was so funny....Also he did it again this morning....SMH

Funny Story #4

After church on Sunday our branch mission leader invited us over for dinner and because we don't get fed here I accepted the invitation for us! I didn't know he lived 20 miles out of Vernon...whoops! MOST AWKWARD DINNER APPOINTMENT OF MY LIFE! His kid was having an attitude problem. He kept saying HIPPA to his dad and he kept walking away to go control his kids. He ended up carrying the kid into his room after multiple times of leaving us to take care of his kids and told him to knock off the attitude and came back and sat down. It was super awkward. Then I started sharing a message with him and out of the corner of my eye this kid starts throwing everything in his bedroom out into the hallway. We tried to ignore it but there was no way that could happen. He told us we needed to cut the visit short tonight and we said OK and got up and RAN out of there! HIPPA!!! That is a new code word for us when we need to get out of a house!

My companion is ready to leave and thinks this weeks letter is to long. So Remember who you are, Make good choices!

Love Elder Brisk 

That is all.

Tejas has mountains!!!!

Elder Clarke and I :)

#AnchorTies

My Texas posse

Elder Curay's going home

My pal Sister Snyder

Good ole Elder Hansen

Elder Slack is going home

Elder Jensen, my mission brother, is back!!!

Saying goodbye to Alva

 Elder Bills 

Anderson's

Sister Menzel

Drexel

Gwenna & Tim

Shyann

Joy

The Zwiefelhofers!!!

The Wonderful Smiley Clan :)

I am getting transferred to VERNON TEXAS!

Heller Heller Heller Heller Heller Heller!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The transfer information is in....

I am getting transferred to VERNON TEXAS! This means that I will have served in every state that our mission covers. By being in Alva I got to serve in Kansas and now I will be in Texas. It is every missionaries dream to serve in all 3 states. We call it being a Tri-Stater! I am so excited to go to Texas. No doubt I will miss Alva. The people here have become family to me. I will never forget this place. I grew so much as a missionary and saw so many miracles. I know without a doubt that I will be back to Alva someday :)

Elder Bills will be getting Elder Martinez.

My year mark is coming up on the 22nd of this month. Just in case you want to send me a year mark letter/package ;)

My new address is:

Elder Kyler Brisk

2214 Paradise St

Vernon, TX 76384

My first 4th of July on the mission was a blast! They had free food and games down at the park all day so of course Elder Bills and I took advantage of that. We were able to watch the fireworks with Isaac. Alva has some pretty cool fireworks. All the surrounding towns here have their fireworks on different days. That way you can watch fireworks and play games for like a week! It is pretty cool.

On Wednesday we went to Stillwater to meet President Mansell. He is super cool and I am so excited to serve with him. He actually served his mission in Oklahoma so he is excited to be back and serve here again :)

We had exchanges after meeting President Mansell. Elder Hansen and I had a great time! We were able to stop and see Gwenna. It was so good to be able to see her. I only wish that her and Tim would have gotten baptized but it will be a little while before they are ready unfortunately. Please continue to fast and pray for Tim and Gwenna Kimball. :)

On Friday we were with the Hollands in Waynoka. We were visiting a less active member and there was an earthquake! Something about me being in Waynoka brings earthquakes. Later that same day we were in Alva and there was an earthquake that lasted for 20-30 seconds. We later found out that it was a 4.0. I may have not seen a tornado but I sure have gotten my fair share of earthquakes!

We have been able to meet with Drexel more often recently. He is progressing slowly but surely. We had a great lesson with him and Brother Durrence. We talked about the Atonement and how it benefits him. Our main goal with Drexel is to help him know that God is our eternal Heavenly Father and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, our Savior, and our Redeemer.

Knowing those 2 things are crucial! I invite you to study Alma chapter 18. As you study chapter 18 have a prayer in your heart to either know or confirm that you have a Heavenly Father. Reconfirming our testimonies is always a good thing. It helps us recognize what we KNOW rather than what we believe. I know that God lives. I know that we are all his children and he wants us to return to live with him again. DESIRE to receive exaltation. Never be content with where you are. Seek to constantly improve yourself and you will be able to receive the blessings that the Lord is just waiting to pour upon you!

Thank you for being the wonderful child of God you are. I love you and miss you!

Love Elder Brisk 

That is all.

The District + Zone Leaders Elder Slack and Elder Mangum #Alvawood

​4th of July in Alva Oklahoma 

Eskimo Joe's! Best place to eat in Stillwater. We even got T-shirts :)

Coolest Rootbeer Floats EVER!!!! Thanks Zwiefelhofers!

Goodbye to the Pulver's, Green's, and the one and only Brother Durrence

Goodbye to Don, Tristain, and Gabe Harzman, The Johnson's, and the Hollands