Hey everyone!
I hope you all had a good 4th of July! I know I did. I was able to go out and share the gospel with others the entire day. In other words, I celebrated the freedoms of the nation by showing others how important it is that we have these freedoms and also how this gospel can free them from sin. And we got invited to a few BBQ's so that was nice along with our preaching.
One of our wards had a breakfast that morning that we attended and, of course were able to share a spiritual thought. It was a lot of fun, and we gained a lot of trust from the ward by building relationships with the members. People are getting really excited about the work we do and how much of it there is. We've received a number of compliments on our hard work and have been given words of encouragement and support; which is nice to hear as a missionary due to the rejection we receive daily. But, the work is progressing.
We met the new Mission President and his wife. They are wonderful. They are so excited to be here and it shows. They have a great energy that will be infectious to the missionaries here. I anticipate that we will see massive strides in the coming months. Speaking of which, within about 6 months we will all have Facebook accounts that we will use to find people interested in the gospel (which may or may not be in our mission boundaries). With this, referrals will be able travel in and out of all missions and the work will move forward universally. Also, tablets and smart phones are likely to be found in the coming year. Things are changing and it's a blessing to be a part of it.
We had a baptism on Saturday. It went very well. The man who got baptized invited some of his family that are not members of the church. While they changed after the baptism, my companion and I taught the Restoration of the Gospel. As always, we leave a commitment at the end of each lesson and, as the new missionary, I am supposed to leave these commitments. So, I left them with the commitment to be baptized. We gave his aunt a Book of Mormon afterwards and answered a lot of questions from his mom who seems to be interested now. It was a great event.
At church, we got to teach Sunday School because the Gospel Principles teacher was out of town. We now have 2 new investigators. I just get so excited about finding people that the Lord has prepared for us to teach and baptize.
In other news, we almost died yesterday. An SUV blew through a stoplight going about 45 MPH just as we cleared his lane doing a left turn. And it was one of those 'left turn yield on green" intersections (which is what most intersections in Phoenix are) so we were basically stopped in the middle of the intersection waiting on a truck going the opposite direction. When the truck finally put on his turn signal, we were able to start moving again. If the truck had waited one more second to put on his signal, my companion would be dead and I would likely be in the hospital severely injured. I have come to the conclusion that the driver of that truck never puts the turn signal on but felt like he should this time. That's my theory. I was actually oblivious to the whole situation because, as the passenger, I was texting members and investigators to set up a lesson. Either way, I'm still here.
I almost forgot to tell you about the new Scottsdale Mission itself. It's big. We lost Mesa and Apache Junction, which amounts to barely any land, and added all the way over to New Mexico. We have about 100 square miles of New Mexico in our mission now. I wish I could describe it better but perhaps there's somewhere you can find a map. It's just exciting how much more area we have now and how much of it is the Northern mountainous regions where it snows. I hope I get assigned up there at some point. But for now, I will serve in the desert of Northeastern Phoenix with a smile on my face knowing that this is where I need to be.
Things are going very well for me and I am thoroughly enjoying myself. I love you all. Stay safe and I look forward to hearing from you.
One of our wards had a breakfast that morning that we attended and, of course were able to share a spiritual thought. It was a lot of fun, and we gained a lot of trust from the ward by building relationships with the members. People are getting really excited about the work we do and how much of it there is. We've received a number of compliments on our hard work and have been given words of encouragement and support; which is nice to hear as a missionary due to the rejection we receive daily. But, the work is progressing.
We met the new Mission President and his wife. They are wonderful. They are so excited to be here and it shows. They have a great energy that will be infectious to the missionaries here. I anticipate that we will see massive strides in the coming months. Speaking of which, within about 6 months we will all have Facebook accounts that we will use to find people interested in the gospel (which may or may not be in our mission boundaries). With this, referrals will be able travel in and out of all missions and the work will move forward universally. Also, tablets and smart phones are likely to be found in the coming year. Things are changing and it's a blessing to be a part of it.
We had a baptism on Saturday. It went very well. The man who got baptized invited some of his family that are not members of the church. While they changed after the baptism, my companion and I taught the Restoration of the Gospel. As always, we leave a commitment at the end of each lesson and, as the new missionary, I am supposed to leave these commitments. So, I left them with the commitment to be baptized. We gave his aunt a Book of Mormon afterwards and answered a lot of questions from his mom who seems to be interested now. It was a great event.
At church, we got to teach Sunday School because the Gospel Principles teacher was out of town. We now have 2 new investigators. I just get so excited about finding people that the Lord has prepared for us to teach and baptize.
In other news, we almost died yesterday. An SUV blew through a stoplight going about 45 MPH just as we cleared his lane doing a left turn. And it was one of those 'left turn yield on green" intersections (which is what most intersections in Phoenix are) so we were basically stopped in the middle of the intersection waiting on a truck going the opposite direction. When the truck finally put on his turn signal, we were able to start moving again. If the truck had waited one more second to put on his signal, my companion would be dead and I would likely be in the hospital severely injured. I have come to the conclusion that the driver of that truck never puts the turn signal on but felt like he should this time. That's my theory. I was actually oblivious to the whole situation because, as the passenger, I was texting members and investigators to set up a lesson. Either way, I'm still here.
I almost forgot to tell you about the new Scottsdale Mission itself. It's big. We lost Mesa and Apache Junction, which amounts to barely any land, and added all the way over to New Mexico. We have about 100 square miles of New Mexico in our mission now. I wish I could describe it better but perhaps there's somewhere you can find a map. It's just exciting how much more area we have now and how much of it is the Northern mountainous regions where it snows. I hope I get assigned up there at some point. But for now, I will serve in the desert of Northeastern Phoenix with a smile on my face knowing that this is where I need to be.
Things are going very well for me and I am thoroughly enjoying myself. I love you all. Stay safe and I look forward to hearing from you.
Elder Kirk
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