20 month mark!

HELLER!

This week we had a lesson with Ron and his wife Janessa. We started the Addiction Recovery program with them and the lesson was awesome! Ron wasn't sure we would be able to get Janessa in on it but I think she was more excited than he was! We had to help them realize that they both needed to work together to help their family. We will be going over the program with them for the next 12 weeks! :)

On Wednesday I went with Elder Wirthlin to his area. We knocked so many doors and talked to so many people! Unfortunately we didn't find any new investigators but we sure had fun trying! We found this box that said free library on it. So we put a Book of Mormon in it! Hopefully someone will take it and read it! We also went to a trailer park that was not the nicest place I have been to in Edmond and Elder Wirthlin wasn't comfortable their at all! We had Elder Shira with us at that point so we made him knock a few doors. Elder Wirthlin is so funny! I love that kid so much!

President Mansell's twin boys, Cannon and Jared, opened their calls on Thursday night! Cannon is going to Sydney Australia South mission speaking Mandarin Chinese on August 16th! Jared is going to Rome Italy speaking Italian on July 26th! It was so cool watching them open their calls and definitely brought back memories of when I opened my call! I can't believe I hit my 20 month mark this week!!!

Dede is getting Baptized on Saturday at 11am!! We just have one more lesson with her this week and then the Zone Leaders will have her interview on Thursday! I have really enjoyed teaching her! She is the only investigator I have had that takes notes! This will be the 5th convert Baptism for the Edmond 4th ward since December! We have seen so much success here in Edmond! I have really enjoyed serving here.

We had interviews with President Mansell on Friday and then after that I went on ANOTHER exchange with Elder Shira to his area! Their area covers Edmond and Oklahoma City so we went to Oklahoma City because the people down there are a lot more receptive. We knocked some doors, tried to see some people. We found this lady named LaToya who was super cool and so intrigued that we knocked on her door! They are going to see her this week! We also talked to this guy named James Brown FOREVER! He started talking about how he has seen Angels and then started showing us his videos on YouTube and how this "angel" can down to him....it was so animated...he also started going crazy and talking about how the government knows of a planet headed towards earth and how they are building underground bunkers...1st of all an underground bunker isn't going to save you from a planet colliding with another planet. My favorite part was when he said in the last days there would be trumpets and our president is Donald TRUMP. So he goes TRUMP, TRUMPet and looks at us with this face like he had made the worlds biggest discovery. It was so funny and his neighbor kept waving at us and saying he was crazy!

I have been on multiple exchanges with Elder Shira since I have been in Edmond and we always have so much fun! We have done so many exchanges this transfer that they are probably all sick of me but we have one more this week and I will be with Elder Ball!! Yay for exchanges!!!!

Somehow I forgot to mention last week that we did service as a district for this lady named Jo. She went to the hospital and her door got left open so rats, mice, raccoons, and other animals got inside her house and completely destroyed it!! We had to help her get some personal belongings out of it so they can go through and clean it up and it was so nasty! We also kept throwing little things at Sister Williams making her think it was a rat and SHE WOULD FREAK! haha this district loves teasing each other so much!

Remember who you are, make good choices!

Love all y'all!

Elder Brisk

Elder Shira and I are overall buddies! lol 

Service for Jo. 

The Sisters and their investigator are indeed wearing bags on their feet.

Some random pics throughout the last 2 weeks...

Exchanges with Elder Wirthlin

Oklahoma Sunsets 

Cool Jesus statue in downtown Edmond

Big efforts are paying off!

HELLER!!

This week was crazy! It's spring break and UCO is closed. Luckily we found this bank with iPads they are letting us use! That means there will be no pics this week...so look forward to many pics next week!! 

First off I want to thank the Hurricane 3rd ward Beehives for sending me a fun package this week! It was full of snacks and letters. Everything was blue. Except this one yellow letter. To the beehive who sent me the yellow letter I just want to say no I am not having fun in Singapore because I am in Oklahoma! Lol 

We found 3 new investigators because we have been knocking lots of doors. We put our own big effort in to finding and it is paying off! We found Steven...actually he found us! We were trying households on the records and he came up to us! He is super cool and has a great little family. We had the impression to try a member who is on the records even though it says they have moved. We found Courtney who said we can come back this upcoming Sunday. Her little boy has the flu so that is why we had to set the appointment so far away!

We meet Sister Pierce and her mother in law Sister Hansen. Sister Hansen is the funniest old lady I've ever met! It's kind of funny when old people start ranting. She talked about when she was working at the sheriffs office and would always give the inmates a Book of Mormon. We shouldn't use swear words but when she did it was hilarious  

We went on splits with the teachers in our ward and it was so fun! They all loved it and got to see what missionary work is really like. Hopefully we can do it again!

We helped a family load a Budget truck because they moved to Utah. We will miss the Brittons! Sister Britton has a Mini Cooper and she loves it to death! She named it Velma and her and her son were just arguing about if it was a good car or not. Pretty fun family!

I had an exchange with Elder Ball this week! We ended up just walking and talking during the night. People weren't home or outside, not sure why!? We had a lot of fun and he kept me up till 11 talking! Okay jk it was my fault. You can't exchange and not pillow talk!

Elder Shira came with us Friday and we biked around all day! We saw Ron and had a good lesson. Ron and his family is struggling right now and we are going to do the addiction recovery program with them. Well try to. We are meeting with Ron and Janessa Tuesday to discuss it and how it will help hoping to get them on board.

Please pray for Elder Ball and Elder Shira because they have to deal with me as their district leader!! 🏼

I got this quote in gospel doctrine and I really like it! It's from the October 2006 conference by Elder Robert D. Hales.

"For when we want to talk to God, we pray. And when we want him to speak to us, we search the scriptures; for his words are spoken through his prophets. He will teach us as we listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. If you have not heard his voice lately, return with new eyes and new ears to the scriptures. They are our spiritual lifeline. Behind the Iron Curtain, the saints survived because they heard his voice through the scriptures."

"

I bear testimony of the Book of Mormon and the powerful words they contain. We can always benefit from the scriptures as we search them for what God is trying to tell us.

Love Y'all!!!

️ Elder Brisk

The addiction recovery program

Heller!

So this week we had a booth on the UCO campus as a district! It was actually a lot of fun because we can relate with the college kids a lot more than the grown ups of Edmond. It made me kind of want to serve on a campus but then I realized summer will be here so soon and being on a campus when there are no students would be so boring!!

We helped our investigator Diana with her yard this week. She had us weed and mow and then we literally had to stake Easter eggs all over her front yard. She is going all out for Easter! I think I staked down more Easter eggs than I have ever had in my entire life! Then she put some little bunny statues out in her yard to make it convincing! 

Dede is doing so good! We taught her the 10 commandments this week and when we got to #7 which is though shall not commit adultery it went a little crazy. I am not going to explain it in depth but basically she understood it as not being a "side hoe". Why are children so hilarious!?

I went on an exchange this week with Elder Shira! I can't explain how much fun I had being with him for that 24 hour period. We are actually a lot more alike than we thought! So funny story! We were knocking doors and this Man from India answered and we asked him what his name was..He said Abdujsdgfkjdsgf and then we had him repeat it and I said I would call him Abdul for short so I wouldn't slaughter his name. He said he didn't understand and then invited us in! So we went inside and we were talking so slow and simple and articulating ever letter. It was so funny and we decided just to leave him with a Book of Mormon and say a prayer. After the prayer we look up and he was still folding his arms and closing his eyes. We looked at each other and looked back at him and then he looked up. We told him we were going to leave and he asked if we needed anything and we said we were good and he came back with 6 cuties oranges for us!

We also got to help one of the Sisters former investigators load a Uhaul. We weren't to happy about her texting saying she needed help and wanted to come back to church and all that jazz but we got there and realized how much she needed our help. She was alone, had no one and was so shocked we came. Our attitudes definitely changed and we were so happy we could help her.

As a mission we have been going through the addiction recovery program to help us become more converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and help us increase our bond with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. This week I learned that I don't trust the Lord as much as I should. He definitely tested me this week and I was able to realize where I was at fault and decided to change it. The addiction recovery program says something along the lines of "our agency is really the only thing we have to give to God, everything else he has just loaned us." We truly have to learn to let our will align with God's will. As we do that we grow and progress so much further in life. I am so thankful for that learning experience I had this week!

Remember who you are, make good choices. I love you!!

Elder Brisket

Elder Thackeray and I enjoying the beautiful weather

 The UCO booth

We found a snake when we were checking the mail box!

 Ben's Baptism pics have come!!

Diana's house decorated by yours truly

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