Dede sets a date!

HELLER!

So really not a lot to report on this week. We have been trying to visit all of our part member families so we can find some children that need to be baptized. So far we haven't found anyone yet but we have some potential families we are hoping to see this week!

We met with Dede this week and she decided to be baptized on March 25th! We are super excited to have her on date and sooner rather than later! Our ward mission leader was telling everyone at church that this will be our 5th convert baptism in 4 months. You could say he is pretty proud of us!

We finally got to see Mercedes this week too! She has been at her parents house for a week and I guess they got home and someone broke in their apartment and was living there eating their food and everything so they are moving into a different apartment in the same complex. She is still super solid though and has a desire to keep learning!

We were hoping to have Shawn, Mercedes, Dede, Ron and his family at church this week. It seems like when you set things up they fall through so you just gotta have faith and trust that it will happen.

We met with Ron and committed him to talk with his family and come to church with a question in mind to have answered. We are going to talk with him this week about being sincere and having real intent to better prepare them for church! Ron is doing so good and wanting to progress spiritually. I think he might be getting close to baptism but I am not going to hold my breath quite yet.

Shawn has been in Yukon and we haven't seen him since his baptism and confirmation. We can only text him and he isn't the best at communication so not really sure where he is or what he is doing. I think we will be able to find him this week though.

I had an exchange with Elder Wirthlin this week! He got called to serve in Jamaica but he is waiting for his visa so they sent him here. He got to ride a bike for the first time on his mission and it was so funny to watch him figure it all out! Mainly because the bike is to big for him! 

Hope you all have a good week.

Love Elder Brisk

District P-Day at Main Event!

The Alva Trio back together!!

Best part of Zone Conference is seeing familiar faces!

It's February and I can sit outside and drink a cold shake in 80 degree weather....

I will never understand how Oklahoma can be 80 one day and then 50 the next.

Biking with Elder Wirthlin! Stupid train always gets in the way..

A little service fixing fence

Missionary life in one picture

Ben got baptized!!!

HELLER!

We had MLC on Tuesday. Elder Adams and Elder Williams stayed the night with us because Elder Adams had to get his cast Wednesday morning. So basically we spent the evening having dinner once again at the mission home and saying goodbye to people because Elder Adams never got the chance to.

Ben got baptized!!! We spent most of the week teaching him all the lessons so he was prepared. Teaching the Law of Chastity to a 9 year old is so awkward we didn't even do it! We asked Sister Matheny to help us and she sat there for like 5 minutes trying to say something but couldn't figure out how to talk about it so she grabbed him off the couch and ran into a bedroom for like 5 minutes and came out and he sat down with the most puzzled look on his face. We asked him if he knew what the law of chastity was now and he stood up and was like "NOPE I don't want to talk about it" as he walked away from us! It was literally so funny! Sister Matheny was like I just told him not to take his clothes off in front of anyone or let anyone else take his clothes off and he was so disturbed by it!

We had a lesson with Dede and it went well! She said she wants to be baptized around May 29th because that will give her something to be excited to look forward too! Why isn't a birthday exciting for a 11 year old to look forward to? I have no idea. We told her she can/should be baptized like March maybe April but we left the decision to her so we are meeting with her tonight and will find out what date she wants to be baptized! She also wants the Stake President to baptize her which is cool!

We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders this week. I was with Elder Jeffs and we found 3 new investigators!! We have appointments to see them this week so we will see if it goes anywhere. Hopefully it will! We need more investigators and finding in the rich city is difficult! That is why we are working with part member families. We are most likely going to be able to visit a part member family that has a 10 year old that is unbaptized! So many part member families here it is crazy!

We had dinner at a members house on Saturday and they set it up like a Hibachi grill and we hate veggies, meat and rice with chopsticks! Needless to say it is a good thing I didn't go to an Asian mission....

But it was so fun!!!

We have also been trying to find a place to move to because our apartment has had missionaries in it for 11 years and it is disgusting beyond repair. Unfortunately we are on bikes so there is a certain area we need to stay in and there are no good apartments so we are looking for duplex's as we ride our bikes around!! We found the most beautiful apartment ever and then found out it was $1600/ month and so that made us sad but we are still looking!!

Well that is all I got for this week!

Also pictures of the baptism will be posted next week because Sister Matheny has them.

Peace out 

Elder Brisk

PDay! Elder Clarke literally follows me everywhere around the mission 

so basically we should just be forever mission comps

 Jandal Club....get on our level!!

 Tracting in the dark as the severe thunderstorms roll in!

Goodbye Elder Adams...Hello Elder Thackeray!

HELLER

So this week was pretty wild if I say so myself. Elder Adams had his surgery and stayed at the mission home until Friday and went to Claremore, OK. I was all over the place! I was at the mission home and then I was with Elder Ball and Elder Shira in Edmond 2nd for a little bit. I also got to take P day on Tuesday since I was in the hospital all day Monday so I hung out with the Mansell’s son Justin. It was pretty fun. We went go cart racing and I won. We also had to go to Top Golf because he had to win something and I love top golf. It’s pretty fun! I also got to drive a car...BY MYSELF Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. It was so weird! Definitely realized how relaxing it is to be by yourself for a little bit!

Wednesday was transfers and my new companion is Elder Thackeray. He is from Etna California and has been out for 17 months, just one transfer less than me. He is also the youngest of 7 kids. We have already been working so hard! We had Elder Pulice with us Wednesday because he had to wait for Elder Adams to get better so they could go to Claremore. Being in a trio for a day was so fun!

The weather is so bipolar here. Today it is cloudy, might rain and in the 50’s. Saturday it was 88 degrees and it was beautiful. I miss my southern Utah weather and mountains!!

Also the Sisters and the Elders are in Trio’s so Elder Thackeray and I are the only ones in the district not in a trio. Kind of sad because trio’s rock!

There is so much work for Elder Thackeray and I to do here. So Ben Newark is 9 and we have been teaching him for a week. He was with his dad in Midwest City this last week and we are having his baptism Saturday at 11am if everything goes well. That will be a main focus for us this week.

Dede came to church! She is the 11 year old girl we are teaching. Right now she just picks and chooses when she wants to meet with us so we will have to try and setup weekly appointments with her so we can get her baptized ASAP! Her grandparents were with her and this was their second week back to church.

Ron Mais, he is my favorite! He is such a free spirited guy and he is finally starting to come around. He sees now that he needs to focus on improving spiritually and he has such a desire to pray and read the scriptures. He is always the one to ask if we can pray when we are there. We don’t even have to ask him to pray he just goes for it! He has been working on improving his marriage by reading the scriptures with his wife. It hasn’t been going to awesome but the desire is there and that is all that counts.

We took our mission Presidents son Cannon out with us this week and it was so fun! Ever since I was around the Mansell’s a lot the beginning of this week I have really come to love them more than I already did. I am definitely in the best mission and have the best mission president!

Elder Thackeray and I decided we will be working with the Part Member families in the ward since we are already seeing success there with Ben and Dede. We biked clear to the West end of our area which actually isn’t flat believe it or not. Also where all the rich people live. As hard as it was I loved it. When you work hard your faith increases and you believe you can get through anything and everything! Being a missionary is so fun!

Elder Clarke is sitting by me RN and says hi :)

Have a great week!

Peace and Blessings, Peace and Blessings.

Love Elder Brisk

New Companion and New District, sorta.

Left to right:

Sister McFadden, Sister Williams, Sister Streiff, Me, Elder Thackeray, Elder Ball, Elder Shira, Elder Wirthlin

Shawn’s Baptism!

Shawn’s Baptism!

NOT HAVING A COMPANION!¡!¡!¡!

My new favorite shirt mentioned in last weeks email

Surgery for Elder Adams and Baptism for Shawn.

HELLER!

What an eventful week! We found out that Elder Adams was going to have to have surgery to have his finger fully heal so that happened today. Being a missionary and having to wait 4 hours in a hospital isn't fun. Luckily there were some complimentary snacks. We will be staying at the Mansell's house tonight.

Elder Adams is going to be getting transferred on Wednesday as well so my new companion is Elder Thackary and I don't know to much about him but that will change very soon!

SHAWN GOT BAPTIZED!!!

It was so great to have a baptism for Shawn. He is such a great guy and he was so ready for the gospel. Elder Adams performed the baptism for him and I was able to perform the confirmation. So funny story. There is a Sister from a different ward who is responsible for fellowshipping him into the church and she wanted to be a big part of the baptism program. Well her and her 2 daughters ended up singing 2 songs and during the first one (When I am baptized) She and her daughter were standing in front of the podium and then She just pushes her daughter out of the way and Solo's the song as if she is competing. Then towards the end she grabs her daughter and pulls her in close to finish the song. During the second song she literally leaned over and told her daughter to stop playing the flute because it wasn't quite on track with the Piano. Then in fast and testimony meeting she literally yelled "I LOVE THE USA" and I was dying! She was miss America at one point in her life so I guess that is where the competition comes from.

We taught the Matheny's 9 year old son Ben and set a baptism date with him for February 18th. We will be working with him very closely as we only have 2 weeks to teach him everything. We are so happy for the Matheny family. They are just the best! <3

Can't remember to much of what happened this week because my planner is missing. It was a great week though besides the whole surgery deal! :)

Love and miss all y'all!

Brisk <3

Dinner at President & Sister Mansell's

 Sno Cones and P day playing Disc Golf

Sketchy apartment building we went in that had bloodstains on the floor....