Arizona Week 81 - Caroling for Christmas

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all had a great Christmas. Ours went well. The Relief Society in our ward lived up to their name and gave us some toiletries and cleaning supplies for our apartment. I hate to say it, but it was timely. It all went to good use.

It's been another unusual week (which makes it hard to remember what happened). We've been very busy but have been finding good success. We went to teach a man that we had ran into a few weeks ago. I was a little surprised at how receptive he was. We had a really good lesson about the restoration of the Gospel and he is interesting and sincere.

On Christmas Eve, we went caroling with other missionaries in our zone. It was pretty fun and it really seemed to touch the hearts of the people we visited. It’s sad now that people are getting back to being cold and rude, but I suppose that I'm used to that by now.

I can't remember if in a previous email I mentioned that I ran into the first man that I taught and baptized on my mission. He and his wife will be going through the temple this coming month and getting sealed. The sealing will happen in the Gilbert Temple, and I got permission from President Sweeney to go out of the mission for that. I am very excited. 

The rest of the week was crazy and busy. Everyone seemed to be moving this week so we helped out with a lot of that. I'm hoping everything calms down pretty soon.

Happy New Year everyone!

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 80 - Busy, Busy Week

Hey Everyone,

This week has been crazy.

On Tuesday, we helped out at Project Connect. It's a program that helps get homeless people different types of services that they need such as haircuts, ID cards, etc. There was a ton of people there. There were many things that would be able to help these people out. It was a neat program.

On Wednesday, we went to the Temple Lights with an investigator and his wife who is less active. It was really great until we went into one of the visitor center theaters. We were going to watch the He Is The Gift video. The sister missionary announced that we would watch it in Spanish. The people we were with understood enough Spanish to be OK, so we stayed to watch it. Well about half way through, an old, angry, bearded man stood and roared, "In the United States of America we speak English!" and stormed out. It put a damper on the night so we left after the video was over. It was still a good visit though.

On Friday, we had a temple trip. We were able to go early to do baptisms and other ordinances before the main session. We each took a name through for the entire process from baptism to completion of the session. It was an awesome experience. 

On Saturday and Sunday, we performed in the stake choir. It turned out very well. We got a lot of compliments on the choir. We are very glad that we decided to be part of the choir. 

It was a really crazy week. Hopefully this week is a little less hectic, but it probably won't be haha.

Hope you all have a great Christmas!

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 79 - He is the Gift

Hey Everyone,

We had a pretty good week. We were able to go to the temple lights again and listen to a choir sing. It was a lot of fun. I love being on a mission during this time of year.

We got a Christmas tree today. As for decorations...well, we'll think of something.

Well, the highlight of our week was one of the dinners. We ate with a member family. Remember the "He is the Gift" video? Well, we showed the video to an older couple at dinner that had recently returned from a mission. They loved it. The sister was in tears by the end. We testified of the Savior's birth and his mission. I don’t think that we had even asked if they knew anyone that we could teach yet, and they starting giving us names and addresses of people that they wanted us to go see. We left with 3 or 4 names; the other elders left with 3 or 4 also. Then they told us that they had more names but that they'd have to check on where they live now and get current contact info for them. They promised a list of probably 8 more names in a week's time. It was amazing to see the way that they immediately wanted to share this with those they love. 

Well, Elder Jacobson and I went back the next day to help them set up their Christmas lights. Then, we helped them get a tree. We also helped them decorate the tree. Then, they took us out for ice cream. =) It was a lot of fun, and they know who we are now. They also know that they can count on us to help.

We get to go to the temple this week. We are looking forward to that.

Also, the stake choir is performing this coming weekend. I hope it will all come together by then. It should be a really neat event. There will be a lot of different performances. There will be some soloists, a children's choir, some string groups, and us, of course.

I hope you all have a good week too.

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 78 - Mountain Pine

Hey Everyone,

This week was transfer week. Elder Jacobson and I are very excited to get to stay working together for another transfer! We are especially excited because we have a lot of good things happening in the area.

We taught the Krawczyk family this week. We should be getting a date picked for their son's baptism pretty soon. They are pretty neat.

We'll be taking Thomas to the Mesa Temple Christmas Lights tonight. We've taught him just about everything, so we'll be having a baptism set for him in the near future. 

We will also getting a new investigator tonight. She came to church a couple weeks ago with her neighbor. Her neighbor was baptized at the beginning of the year. Our investigator loved church but it was a little confusing to her, so she wants to know more. Fortunately for her, we can teach her more. J

This morning we got the workout of a life time. We got up at 5 AM and rode our bikes about 7.5 miles to Camelback Mountain, hiked the mountain, then rode back to our apartment. Our legs are very tired, but we had a lot of fun. It was just Elder Jacobson and me, so we really enjoyed ourselves.

This week will be good also, we have a lot planned and should be able to meet with a lot of people. We're getting a Christmas tree for our apartment today. We're full of all sorts of holiday cheer.

Here are some pictures from our hike:






The Sunrise.











Elder Jacobson and me with a Christmas tree that we found growing at the summit.

 A sign that describes the trail very well.

A note from Elder Kirk's Mom from a website discussing Camelback Mountain: 

There are two well-marked trails that lead to the summit – Echo Canyon Summit Trail and Cholla Trail, which are open from sunrise to sunset.  On a cautionary note, both of these trails are marked double black diamond and therefore are not recommended for young children or those who are uncomfortable climbing exposed rock faces with potential drop.  On the hike you will gain 1200 feet in elevation, to arrive at the summit height of 2704 feet.

Have a great week!

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 77 - Thanksgiving

Hello Everyone,

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope it went good for all of you. Ours was pretty good. We (fortunately) only had one family ask us over for dinner. It was really good, and I wasn't in as much pain as I was from the 3 dinners of last year. Well I suppose that we did also have a thanksgiving breakfast. That was really good too.

We had a really neat experience after the breakfast. We were walking back to the apartment when a woman walking the other direction asked us if we knew where the church was located. She explained that she had just moved here from Mississippi and after being baptized there, she hadn't been very active. We told her where the church was and gave her a pass along card with our phone number on it. As we got closer to home we realized that we had no information for her: no address, no phone number, we didn't even know her name. Well, Saturday came, and she called us. She said that the message on the card was really what she needed. She explained that she had come to Arizona to try and get her daughter and granddaughter off of drugs. We gave her the information she needed to set an appointment with the bishop so that he could help her with those things; and we got her name and phone number and address. We didn't make the same mistake twice. The neat part was that I was only carrying one of the pass along cards; I usually don't carry any.

We were also able to visit with the Krawczyk family on Monday. The mother is less active, the father and children are not members but they are now taking the lessons from us. They are a really fun family. Sister Krawczyk actually requested to have missionaries visit so that she could get active again and so her children could be part of the church as well as her husband.

A lot of good things are happening and this is a great time of year for missionary work. There is a new video that the church has launched called: He is the Gift. You can find it on cristmas.mormon.org It is a really well made video. I hope you will have the opportunity to check it out and show your friends. Good stuff.

Well Merry Christmas to you all (I can start saying that now). Hope you have a great week.

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 76 - Talk to Everyone

Hello Everyone,

Not a whole lot happened this week; Elder Jacobson didn't feel well for a few days. But on Saturday our District Leader came on exchanges with me. We decided that we wanted to actually talk to every person we saw that day (something we are told to strive to do). Well we succeeded. There was not a single person that we didn't at least attempt to speak with. It came to a total of 62 persons.

Our investigator, Thomas, committed to a date for baptism! December 6th is what we are shooting for. He came to church this week and loved it. He's been doing really well.

We also were able to get in contact with a less active woman that has some children that haven't been baptized. We have an appointment with them tonight that we are excited about.

We're starting to decorate for Christmas. When we finish I'll send some pictures.

This email is a little boring but I don't have much else from this week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Elder Kirk

Here are some pictures from our recent hiking trip:

Arizona Week 75 - Spider Web

Hi Everyone,

We've had a fairly eventful week. It's been fun. The dedication of the Phoenix Temple was yesterday. I really like temple dedications; I've been able to go to 2 on while on my mission.

An unfortunate thing happened while we were at the dedication. We got a call from one of our investigators. We haven't seen or spoken too to him before. He told us that he had finally gotten time off of work to go to church and was at the meeting house wondering why no one was there. It was pretty upsetting. Hopefully he can come next week. We felt so bad. 

So on Tuesday, we felt the need to do something that had never been done before. As we sat pondering what we might do, we recalled that we had a substantial amount of yarn for some reason. It was then that we decided to take the yarn and form a spider web in our bedroom.

The look on the faces of the other elders in our apartment was hilarious. I don't think they knew what to think. You just never know what might happen with Elder Jacobson and me.

Also this week, as we were walking to dinner, we had rocks thrown at us! Our would-be executioners did not have very good aim; fortunately, but it was exciting nonetheless.

We met with a long time inactive member at the public library because he is trying to get back into the church. He expressed his concerns, and we were doing our best to help him resolve them when an old, angry, bearded man at the table next to us decided to chime in with his opinion. He said that "salvation comes through Jesus Christ, not Joseph Smith," which we, of course, agreed with.  The fact that we agreed with him through him off for a second, but he then asked why we put Joseph Smith on the same level with Christ. We told him that this was not the case, but he insisted that it was. He said many more things such as "Joe Smith is dead, in the grave, never to rise again", and "What did Christ mean when He said, 'it is finished'? He answered his own question by saying that Christ meant that there would be no more prophets. Then he said, “Joe Smith called himself, he wasn't called of God." Then, the man we had originally come there to speak with ended it all by pleading with our attacker to give him an hour with us and then he could talk to us all he wanted. The man grumbled but remained quiet during the remainder of our visit. As we left, we offered him a copy of the Book of Mormon; he refused. Oh well.

I can't remember much else from this week but it was good. I'm down to the last 6 months, and I plan to make them good.

Take care everyone.

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 74 - Baptism

Hey Everyone,

So things are still going great with the dream team, Elder Kirk and Elder Jacobson. We had a lot fun this week and a lot of great experiences.

We found some new investigators while walking around an apartment complex. They were talking back and forth for a little bit and then one of them yelled to us from across the way, "Are you Mormons?!"  To which we, of course, replied, "Yes!" "See I told you!" was their response.

So, we decided to go talk to them. They were hilarious. We had a very interesting conversation. It was obvious that one of them was very much under the influence of drugs. It turns out that they had received a copy of the Book of Mormon a few months back from missionaries in Central Phoenix. We were able to explain it to them, and we learned from them that they did not have a strong Christian background. They knew enough to say that "Mormons are the coolest kinds of Christians". We went and visited them later this past week. They are a lot of fun. Teaching them will be an uphill battle but they have potential.

We had a fun experience with a member at dinner this week. The grandmother of the family was very social and told us a story about a Saint Bernard that she used to own. Well, she went through the whole story and concluded by saying that she likes little dogs now. Then she said that she used to like big dogs and proceeded to tell the whole Saint Bernard story again in full detail. After about 8 consecutive run-throughs we were struggling to hold back laughter. She was a sweet lady and it was a lot of fun to talk to her.

Our Saturday was packed! In the morning, we were able to go through the temple with a woman that Elder Jacobson had baptized a year ago. It was her first time, and she loved it. Later that day we went back to my last area for the baptism of a mother and daughter that I had taught. Immediately after that, we went to Elder Jacobson's last area for the baptism of a lady that he had taught. We brought our investigator (the one we had taken to the temple open house) to both baptisms. It was a really fun night.

This week should go really well. We are getting excited for Thanksgiving. We have a member of the seventy coming to tour the mission. It should be really good.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 73 - "Yet Will I Not Forget Thee"

Hey Everyone,

This has been a great week! I love my companion!! Things go so well when you get along with a companion.

I don't recall much from this week, but we had one experience that I will never forget. We are both new to this area, so we are really trying to get acquainted with people and to get the work rolling forward. Furthermore, because we are really close friends, there is a common feeling among many that we won't get anything done. So that makes it all the more important that we work hard and make things happen.

While we were doing our weekly planning, we started to send text messages to all of the potential investigators in the area book to see if they would be interested in meeting with us. We got a good number of replies but one in particular stuck out. He told us that he was planning on going to church that Sunday and that he was also planning to go to the Phoenix Temple Open House the next day (last day it's open). We asked if he had a ride to the open house because we would love to take him. He said that he didn't have a ride yet, so we told him that we would find one for him. He was very grateful and said that we were an answer to his prayer.

Well, we went to the open house with him the next day, and we learned about what he meant by "an answer to his prayer". It turns out that he really wanted to go to the open house (he loved the open house in Gilbert and wanted to see the Phoenix temple also), but he didn't know how he could get there. He prayed and here is the exciting part, as he closed his prayer, he received our text message. After not having contact from missionaries (or anyone in the church) since April; he received our text after praying. He was blown away.

 We visited with him again on Sunday, and he really wants to get baptized before the dedication of the temple so that he can be able to view it. He remembers a great deal from when he was taught by missionaries in the past. He reads the church magazines and watches every General Conference. We are so grateful to have been able to be an answer to his prayers at this time.

In a way, he was an answer to our prayers as well. My companion and I have become fast friends. Our friendship has caused a little skepticism with some that we might not be able to do the Lord's work. This has caused us to have a great desire to do the Lord’s work well. We want Him to be proud of the work we do.

The Lord knows his children and although others may forget about someone, He never will. This man; a son of our Heavenly Father was lost from gaining further knowledge of the gospel for a time as the ward and the missionaries seemed to have forgotten him. But the Lord helped us to find him again. We are very happy. 

These next couple of months are going to go really well.

Love you all.

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 72 - Kirk and Jacobson

Hey Everyone,

This week was transfers. I have been transferred again and am now in East Phoenix. My new companion is Elder Jacobson. You may recognize that name from a couple months ago. He was the Elder that I got along with really well. Yes, we're companions now. It's pretty much the best thing in the world! We're super excited to be able to work together, and we know we are going to have some really good success.

I was sad to leave the ward I was serving in, but I know I will be back to visit soon. There are a couple of people that I taught who have committed to get baptized. These two should be baptized on November 8th so that will be very exciting.

We get to go to the temple on Friday. It's a new mission tradition that we are starting: to go to the temple on Halloween night. What better way to celebrate the dead than to save their souls through temple ordinances?

The new area seems like it will be pretty good. We live with four other elders in a 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment. They are a fun bunch. I think that things will go very well here. I don't have any stories yet but with a companionship like this, we'll have some good stories to tell by next week.

I hope you all have a great Halloween.

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 71 - Moved by the Spirit

Hello Everyone,

We had a great week. A ton of people came to church, and our Gospel Principles class was packed. Most of them are from one apartment complex, which happens to be one of the worst apartment complex for drugs, violence, etc.

One of the ladies we taught this week REALLY liked our lesson. We reviewed the restoration with a little object lesson involving cups. When we finished all she could say was "WOOOOWW...I never thought of it like that. That makes so much sense." She snapped a picture of it and said she wanted to show everyone at work and even asked us to make her a set of these cups, so she could really show people. She really liked it a lot.

Later this week, I went with one of the zone leaders for the day. After lunch, he decided that we were going to go to the home of some people that he had met recently and offer service. So, we grabbed some cleaning supplies and went over and cleaned the porch and the windows and the floor. They thought it was a little strange at first, but they were very appreciative when we finished. It's a 2 bedroom apartment that houses 10 adults and 3 or 4 children. You can imagine that it gets rather messy. Before we left, one of them, offered his service to us if we ever needed it. We told him about a stake service project this weekend, and he said that he would come and help.

The neatest experience this week came while we were knocking doors in an apartment complex. We had knocked on a couple and then decided that we were not in the right place; we needed to knock a different set of doors. So, we moved around the complex until we felt that it was right. The first door we knocked on was opened by a lady who used to be taught by missionaries. She didn't remember much but was willing to have missionaries teach her and her children again. The next door we knocked on turned out to be a less active man who had recently moved into the area with his wife and small daughter. It was great to be in a position where we could feel the promptings of the Spirit moving us to where we needed to be.

Experiences like this help me to remember that the Lord is in charge of the missionary work and all that happens in the church. I am merely an instrument that He can use to bless the lives of His other children. By allowing the Lord to work through me, I too am blessed.

I hope all of you are having fun making preparations for Halloween. Eat some candy for me.

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 70 - Phoenix Temple and Kicking Pigeons

Hey Everyone,

This week has been really good. We were able to go to the Phoenix Temple Open House with a Lutheran Pastor from New York. My companion, Elder G, used to teach his mother, so he came down, and we all went to the temple. It is a very beautiful temple. They all enjoyed it a lot, and we did too. The pastor knows a great deal about the church and will likely join after he retires. We're going many more times with other people that we are teaching.

I hope that some of you were able to see Meet the Mormons. A couple that we are teaching went to see it, and they LOVED it! They really touches them that missionaries will leave their home to go teach and help other people like them. They are so grateful that we found them.

So, there are a ton of pigeons in our area. We set a goal, as a companionship, to kick a pigeon. Well, this week I met my goal. It was glorious.

This morning, we went to hike Camelback Mountain. It was a ton of fun. We ran down it (which was a little sketchy but it's OK). We're going again next week so that'll be a lot of fun.

I can't remember anything else right now. Hope you all have a great week.

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 69 - Meet the Mormons

Hey everyone,

I know that I briefly mentioned Meet the Mormons last week but now that I have seen it I have a lot more to say. It was awesome! I hope that you can all go and see it. It is very inspiring. It helps to show what kind of lives we as members of the church lead. And it is not just here in the US but around the world. Tell your friends about it too.

I don't have a lot of time to write today, but I do want to share one funny story: We had an appointment with a recent convert that (because of past substance abuse) is not all together in his mind. On top of that, at the time of our visit, he was very tired. We could not understand a word that he said the whole night, and he kept falling asleep. All the while he was having great difficulty opening an Activia yogurt. It seriously took him 15 minutes. When he finally got it open, he started to eat it by just sticking his mouth in it. So, yogurt was all over his face as I was trying to share a scripture. Then, I begin explaining the verse that I read and he started falling asleep again but this time the yogurt fell out of his hand and landed upside down on his lap. At this point, we couldn’t stand it any longer; we lost it. Our laughter led us to tears. We left. I don't think I've laughed harder many times in my life.

That's all I got for this week.

Elder Kirk

                           Happy Halloween

Arizona Week 68 - Noah's Bicycle

Hello Everyone,

We had a great week: I got a 15 dollar suit from a thrift store that fits perfect, an investigator couple is going to get married soon so they can be baptized, we had the primary program, and Mesa was blessed with a lot of rain.

We're teaching a family of 8 that really loves the church. The parents aren't married yet, but we taught them the law of chastity lesson, and they are thinking of marriage so that they can get baptized. Their kids sang in the Primary program this week and the whole ward loves this family.

Speaking of the Primary Program, it was so cute. We had 8 investigators there and about 4 other nonmembers there for the first time. They all loved it. The kids did a great job and the spirit was in their words. One young boy had a short line to speak and when he had finished a small child in the congregation said very audibly, "Is that it?!"

Also it rained…a lot. We got drenched. There was a lot of flooding on the roads. Undaunted, we hopped on our bicycles and rode through the floods while the rest of the world perished in the floods. One intersection had so much water that it was half covering our bikes as we rode through them. This means that all of our pedaling was done under the water level. My shoes still have not dried all the way.

We are very busy. There are so many people to teach, and we find more each week. This is a good ward for missionary work. The Phoenix Temple Open House starts next week, and we are excited to take people there.

Also, next week, Meet the Mormons comes out in select theaters. It is a full length film that tells the story of 6 LDS families living throughout the world. We will view it tomorrow so next week I can tell you more about it. But I highly recommend that you go to see it if you are able to and that you tell others about it. I have heard great things about it already, and I know that it will help a lot of people to get to know who we are.

I hope you all have a great week.

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 67 - Coming out of the woodwork

Hey everyone!

It's been a really great week! People have been showing up all over the place. We just ride our bikes down the street, and people come running out to hear what we have to say and really want to come to church. Ok, so that is a little exaggeration but not much. We have found so many people that want to be taught and four of them have accepted the invitation for baptism in a couple weeks!

We had a mission conference with Elder Russell M. Nelson. It was great! We all got to shake his hand and hear his apostolic instruction. I found it interesting that the first thing he said was that our area of Arizona is the perfect set up for missionary work; there's no better place in the world. It's neat to hear from Apostles in an intimate setting like that. He was really able to just speak to us and it was really neat.

We had a bunch of people come to church this week. It was great! One of the ladies that got baptized somewhat recently has been finding us so many people. Every time we see her out and about she is talking to someone about the church and then calls us over, and we teach the restoration. It's so fun.

This ward is really great. There is a lot work to do here and it's wonderful. Things are good and we should have some baptisms coming up soon.

Love you all!

Elder Kirk

From Devin's Mom: 
Elder Kirk’s new companion is Elder Grenko. He is still in the Scottsdale mission but is in the city of Mesa. There are two Mesa stakes in the mission. He is currently serving in the Mezona Ward of the Mesa Maricopa Stake. He and his companion live in a member’s home. He is back to riding his bike again rather than having a car. 

Arizona Week 66 - Back to Work

Hey everyone,

I got transferred into Mesa again. In another super tiny ward. The people seem great. We got a lot of work done last night. It was great. 

We contacted a referral that we had gotten. The man is not a member but was almost baptized a number of years ago. His girlfriend grew up in the church. They had a lot of questions that we were able to answer for them. They had some concerns that we were able to resolve, and they are planning to come to church this week. We're going to help them get married so that he can get baptized. Things are going well.

I miss a lot of the people in the last ward I served in. Especially Brandon and Ainsley L. They are awesome people, and I love them. I'm excited about this new area. My new companion seems like a great guy.

I should have a few experiences to share next week.

Elder Kirk

A Letter from a Ward Member

My name is JK and your son has been serving in our ward for the last month. I just wanted to send you a quick note to let you know how great we think he is!

This last Sunday the Bishopric had him share his testimony as he is being transferred this week. I was so impressed with him and could tell that Elder Kirk has such a solid testimony of the Book of Mormon, I was so happy to see my children listening to him as he bore testimony of it's truthfulness. 

We are really going to miss Elder Kirk! Even though it has only been a month that he has been here, he has a special place in our hearts. He is an awesome missionary and he and your family will be in our prayers!

All Our Best!

Arizona Week 65 - Hour of Power

Hello Everyone,

This week went pretty well. The ward members are beginning to trust in the missionaries again, which is always a good thing, and we had some neat experiences.

So, we did what is called a "Miracle Window". We decide that we will be somewhere for a set amount of time, and we pray and ask that there will be people there that are ready to hear us. So, we picked a large park in our area to have our Miracle Window at. We got there around 9:00am and planned to stay about an hour and a half. When we first rolled in, we saw a woman walking on the sidewalk. We approached her and started to talk. She was kind but said that she was in the middle of her "Hour of Power" and that it wasn't a good time. However, she did accept a mormon.org card with our phone number on it. We parked our bikes and started to walk around. First couple people were not interested. We did talk to a young mother, and she gave us her address and said we could come back. We continued around and passed the Hour of Power woman a few times, always exchanging hellos. All the other people we talked to in the park didn't want to hear us. So, we took a break on a shaded bench because it was getting hot. After a few minutes, here comes Mrs. Hour of Power. She introduced herself as Sandra and asked if we wanted to chat for a few minutes. Well of course we want to! She sat down and said, "So I see you are Mormons, from your card. I'm a Christian. What is the difference?" We took this opportunity to share the Book of Mormon with her, and she accepted a copy. We also were able to answer her question about how a loving God would allow tragedies to happen. She gave us her phone number and seems excited to hear back from us. It truly was a miracle.

Also this week, we have been visiting member families and sharing one of our lessons with them. For 3 or 4 strong families, we followed our lesson by committing them to pray as a family to have a missionary experience that week and then invited them to share their experience in testimony meeting this past Sunday. It was a big success. Many of these people shared the experiences that they had in the testimony meeting. Even better, many that we had not invited came up and shared missionary experiences that they had and their testimonies of missionary work. Many people commented on how wonderful the meeting was and how great it was to hear all those experiences. As we had suspected, many people just didn't think that they could have these experiences. But now everyone knows that the Lord answers prayers to have those experiences. We feel this will help the work in this ward to start hastening. 

We are excited for all the good that is happening. I love you all and I hope things are going well for each of you.

Elder Kirk

September 8 Zone Conference

Arizona Week 64 - Meet the Mormons

Hey everyone,

Another slow week. We had a zone conference. There was a lot of talk on planning (boring). The fun part was watching clips from Elder Bednar speaking at Education Week (link on lds.org). He talked about the importance of using the internet for righteous purposes. He also showed a trailer for the new movie coming out in October called "Meet the Mormons". It looks really good. 

We've been telling everyone about this movie and it seems like a lot of people are going to be interested in seeing it. The missionaries get to go also.

The Phoenix temple is going to open soon; it looks really pretty.

Elder Russell M. Nelson is coming to visit the mission this month, so we are really excited for that. There are a lot of neat things happening soon.

There are two more weeks in this transfer. We are really trying to find someone to teach before then. It'll happen soon enough.

Things are going alright. I got to see some people from the wards I used to serve in. I really enjoyed that. The better part was that they remembered me. That's always fun.

Hope you all enjoy Labor Day

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 63 - All We Can Do

Hey Everyone,

I have a couple things from this week.

I got sick this week. Monday night we got home and my stomach was a little upset. The next morning wasn't any better. Then throughout that day (Tuesday) I was getting really nauseous and dizzy. I finally threw up. We stayed in that day and Wednesday until dinner. So from Monday night until Wednesday night I did not eat. I'm feeling better now though.

Then, on Saturday the air conditioning (AC) went out. It was very hot, and you can imagine the smell of having 6 Elders in there. It was bad. So, we prayed before going to bed and the AC came back on. That was quite a blessing; a miracle even. We would not have slept well with the 100 degree apartment.

On Saturday I got a call from the first counselor in the bishopric. One of the speakers for that Sunday had cancelled and he asked if I could fill in. I always enjoy opportunities to speak while on a mission. It's a great opportunity to help everyone see the missionaries and hear what we are about.

Also on Sunday, one of the deaf men in the branch spoke, or rather signed, and Elder Riggs spoke for the man as he signed. I also had the opportunity to pass that sacrament.

After Sacrament Meeting we were both asked to speak to the 17 yr old class about how we teach people about marriage. It was a lot to do but we always like being involved in the ward.

I think that is all I have for this week. Hope you all have a good Labor Day weekend.

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 62 - Not Much Change

Hello,

I still don't have much to say this week. Not much is happening yet. We've been working closely with our ward mission leader to try and jump-start the ward's missionary work. We've been setting some plans of what we want to do, and we're hoping that something will work.

We've been meeting a lot of the ward members throughout this week. There are a lot of really great families.

This past week we went to a stake dodge-ball activity. Some of the people were getting a little too serious about it. One of the elders accidentally hit a guy on the other team in face with the ball and sent his glasses flying. Well of course that was unfortunate, and I have experienced things like that before. Well, the guy who had been hit was really upset by this and was aiming for this poor elder for the rest of the game. It was a little pathetic. 

We had a couple storms here that were really pretty. I love the lightning in Arizona. Whenever it comes, there is always a lot of it. It's nice when a storm rolls in and cools things down a bit.

Well that was my week. Hope you all have a good one. Take care.

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 61 - The Fixer

Hey everyone,

I’m still adjusting to my new assignment. It's going to be a tough one. It turns out that I am a fixer. I am sent to areas that need extra help. This area has no missionary work happening right now; the members have a bad taste in their mouths from previous missionaries and it's my job to change that.

My companion, Elder Riggs, knows American Sign Language (ASL) and is here to interpret the meetings into ASL for the 2 deaf men in the ward. It is already making a big difference in the lives of these two men. They are very happy to have him here and to be able to really learn what is being taught in church.

Our Ward Mission Leader is really awesome. He got back from his mission maybe 2 years ago or so. He was just recently called  to the position of Ward Mission Leader, so together we are going to remake the missionary work in this ward.

I still don't have any funny or inspiring stories; just getting lost a lot, on a bicycle, in the heat. Hopefully we can get things to work out. 

I think that is all I have for this week. Take care everyone.

Elder Kirk