Arizona Week 32 Mountain Life

Hey Everyone,

It's been fun up here in the mountains. Things are fairly different here. It's quieter and cleaner and colder. I'm enjoying it though. There's a lot more to do here. The place that we stay in (the garage apartment) is newly made so all the junk left over from the construction was still in the front of it. We decided to help out the man whose home we live at so the three of us started cleaning it up one morning. This didn't last too long though because he soon asked if we knew about the zipline that went through his backyard. It isn’t his zipline but it does go on part of his lot. So, we decided to test it out. We learned, after we all crashed at the bottom that this zipline was designed for children that weigh much less than we do. We also learned about how stopping at the end is supposed to happen. There is a tire at the bottom that we now know is meant to be slid up on the cable so that it will be a more gradual stop. The way we had it, we were basically hitting directly into a bracket behind the tire. It was a good time though and we did end up finishing the job we started. Over the course of the cleanup, we found 6 mice living in the pile...only 1 got away. Natural instinct took over at the discovery of the infestation because this poor family had been finding droppings throughout their house. I hope that we contributed to the solution.       





 Our garage apartment. 















The view out the front door.

The town here is pretty neat. There are some cool little shops and everything is mountain themed country stuff so I'm really enjoying it. I bought a little knife at a shop here that I think gives a good indicator of what the area is like. 

We're hoping to take a family that we are teaching to the Gilbert Temple Open House. It will be a really good experience for them because they want to be sealed in the temple.

It's a little different to be in the middle of nowhere. We rarely see other missionaries. But on the upside, when we finish planning for the following day, we can go to sleep. When you live with other missionaries, you stay up till the very last minute. 

Just for fun!

I'm having a great time here. Hopefully it will snow soon. People are getting worried about how dry it is. I hope you all have a great week.

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 31 - Road Trip

Hey Everyone,

So, I'm sure I mentioned that we were going to have a special tri mission conference where the Apostle, Elder Holland was going to visit us. This was going to happen in Mesa, so we began the 4 hour drive on Friday afternoon planning to stay with missionaries down there. No sooner had we begun to leave than our zone leaders called to ask if we had a way to get there and to inform us that Elder Holland had been given a special assignment and would not be with us at the conference but would be replaced by Elder Wright of the Seventy. I know Elder Wright from the time I served in his ward in Mesa. I was, of course, disappointed that we would not see Elder Holland but I knew that Elder Wright would do a great job as well. 

The drive down went smoothly, and we arrived safely. We spent the night in my last apartment with good ol' Elder Davis. It was very fun. My companion spoke in a Dutch type accent for the night and fooled all the Elders in the apartment to thinking that he was from Holland. 

The meeting was wonderful. There were great testimonies shared and Elder Wright did a wonderful job. I felt bad for him because at one point he paused and said, "No one is more disappointed that Elder Holland isn't here...than me." You could tell that it was a shock to him when he was asked to fill in for an Apostle. I was able to see many of the missionaries from my MTC district that landed in the Mesa mission so that was a treat. 

The drive back went well also. We arrived late Saturday night and now it's back to work. I hope you all have a great week.

Elder Kirk

P.S. While they were gathered for the Mission Conference, they took a picture of the entire mission. Elder Kirk is in the back row in the center next to the elder in sunglasses.

Arizona Week 30 - Five Forests

Hello Everyone,

Transfers were this week. I have been moved to the Pinetop area in the White Mountains. I'm sad to leave the area in Mesa. I had made good friendships with many of them. Nevertheless, the Lord has a task for me to complete here, and I will work hard to do it. My new companion, Elder Burggraaf, is from Alpine, Utah. He got into the mission a transfer after I did. He's a really nice guy, and I think that we'll work well together. 

Before leaving Mesa, I was able to help out a family that hopes to be sealed in the temple. We've become close with them. The missionaries in that area will soon move into the same apartment complex that they are and so will be their neighbors. We helped clean and organize the garage attached to their apartment. It used to be the maintenance shed and so it was full of all sorts of random junk. The whole job took about 4 hours and it looked dang good when we got done. They had their baby boy blessed on Sunday, and we were able to participate in the blessing. 

Elder Davis was pretty upset that I wouldn't be in the same apartment as him up until he goes home. We had become really good friends over the past few months. 

Transfer day went smoothly. I got pretty much everything packed up. In my new area, we will be driving a truck instead of a car or being on bicycles.  I have been assigned as the driver of our Chevy Colorado. Also, we have a quasi smart phone because the other phones don't get enough service in the mountains. 

The drive up to my new area was so pretty. I didn't realize that Arizona actually has trees. It took about 3-4 hours to get here. Of interest, we drove through five National Forests on the way here. We live in a garage that has been converted into a studio apartment. It is 40 degrees outside and there are little patches of snow around where we live. I'm excited to be here and to have a new opportunity to serve in another area. 

I hope you all have a good new year and that you accomplish the things that you want to. I hope you all have a great week.

Elder Kirk

A Letter From a Sister in Elder Kirk's Ward

Here's a photo of some people you know!  Elder Watson and Elder Kirk have been serving in our ward for the past few months and have done a terrific job.  Not a pair that wastes any time,they have been so good at putting all the puzzle pieces together - who is related to whom (many of us), whose home this couple now lives in and remembering names, faces and relationships. They have worked well together and have had a good measure of success.  Most of all, they have motivated us as ward members to join in the great gathering that is spreading across the world!


They have been quick to lend a hand to those who need it and look for ways they could serve others.  Yesterday, they picked bags and bags of citrus from some member's trees and planned to deliver them to some of those who have been listening to their message.  When many weren't home, they came to our
house and spent some time juicing, learning to section a grapefruit and
make orange "cupcakes."  (A skill they'll be certain to show you when they get home.)



We love these elders and are so grateful for their consecrated service to the people in our ward and most especially to our Heavenly Father.  As parents, you should be very proud of them and the work they are doing.  They are representing you and your family well.  However, we are sad to see Elder Kirk go up north and leave the "true" ward.  He he he :)

Arizona Week 29 - Christmas

Hey everyone,

I hope you all had a good Christmas. Mine went well. I am now completely overrun by a variety of junk food and sweets; my soul is happy but my body opposes.

Things are going very well though. It was a good Holiday but it will be nice to have everyone back in town and to resume our routine of teaching. We did have opportunities to teach, of course, and we were able to find opportunities to give service throughout the week. In fact, on Saturday, we helped out an elderly couple with some branches that they had cut from a tree that was to be removed from their yard. We helped break up the sticks and put them in the bins. We were able to have a good conversation with them, and we received the payment of cookies and milk. We also set a time for us to return and remove the stump from the yard also. I have a good feeling about the future of our relationship with this couple. 

We were able to celebrate Christmas with the other missionaries we serve with. We had a Secret Santa gift exchange where the rule was that it had to be a homemade gift. The Elder I was to make a gift for played baseball in high school. I found an old piñata stick in the apartment and carved it into a small baseball bat. He loved it, and I had a great time making it. The gift I received was not homemade, but I still liked it. It was a box of Aloha chocolate covered macadamia nut clusters. 

Yesterday, during church, Sister Casas (the woman that we recently baptized) received a calling to work in the primary. We're very excited for her.

We have some neat things coming up:

On New Year’s Day, we will have an activity with the missionaries in our zone and three other zones. We also recently learned that we will be able to take people to the Gilbert Temple Open House. But the really exciting one happens in January. Three missions will be together for a special meeting with Elder Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. We are looking forward to that opportunity with a lot of anticipation.

I hope you all have a great new year. Love you all.

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 28 - 170 Ties

Hello,

I hope everyone is getting ready for Christmas and really enjoying this time of year. I also hope you all stay warm, I know I am. It's been an alright week. Many people are beginning their vacations with families and aren't home when we come knocking. However, when we do meet with people around this time it's a very nice experience. 

I see Christmas a little differently this year. I've been noticing many people that don't have much going on for Christmas or they have nowhere to go. I'm very pleased with my ward members that are reaching out to have other people join them for Christmas and doing other little kindnesses that are much appreciated. I would encourage you to seek for people that could use a family during Christmas. Ask the Missionaries if anyone they teach needs a place to go for Christmas Eve and day. 

We met a man this week that lived next to missionaries in the past. He talked about how he'd always like chatting with them and how they had helped him with things. He then had something click in his mind. He said, "You boys want some ties?" we paused for a moment, and he said, "Of course you do! You're missionaries!" He escaped into his apartment and returned with 2 BOXES. He emptied the boxes into 2 garbage bags that were then completely filled. He insisted that we take them all.  He told us that we could share them with other missionaries. We went to the church and counted them up. 170 ties total. We selected the ones that we definitely wanted and later literally  threw the rest of the ties to a group of Elders that tore through them like lions. What a great Christmas!

As for the rest of the week, it was fairly ordinary. We've been enjoying the difference of feeling around town as more people seem kinder and more generous toward others. 

I hope you all can feel it too; Merry Christmas to each of you. Have a great week.

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 27 - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas?

Hey everyone,

It's been another great week here in sunny Arizona! Hard to believe that Christmas is coming when its 60-70 degrees outside and there are no clouds in the sky. For some reason I don't think that I will be having a "White Christmas". Nevertheless, there is definitely the Christmas spirit in the air here. We have met many people that are nicer than you'd expect them to be. I do have, however, some stories about very unchristmasy happenings.

A few days ago, we went to visit a man that is not very active in the Church. He has some mental struggles and a smoking addiction. As soon as we walked in, I could tell he was a little off. A few minutes in, and he admitted to doing "something wrong." He told us that he was pretty high. Apparently he had given food stamps to a friend and the friend repaid him with "spice." He told us that he had smoked some a few minutes prior, and he did not like what it was doing to him. He made the decision to get rid of the rest of it. He pulled out the containers (2 of them, they were clear plastic cylinders with a black plastic twist on lid, much like something that would hold make-up) that had this herbal looking drug in them. He asked us to dispose of them. There was no way we were going to touch it! We said, "We think it would be best if you got rid of them. Just open them and flush the stuff down the toilet." He agreed and then asked if we could read Doctrine and Covenants 89 with him (he wasn't aware that it was the doctrine discussing the Word of Wisdom (which is a kind of health code that we follow) so that was kind of neat). After we left him, we started to exit the complex when we heard a woman yell HEY to us. We went back to see what she needed. When referring to the man that did the “spice,” we could defiantly say that it was a depressant...this woman was on something else. She spoke sooooo fast. The bits and pieces I caught were about "walking with Satan" how he's in her apartment every day, "the Holy Spirit in the Church helps with all" "the Church is true" "it talks about Ezra Taft Benson in the Bible" and she said she knew we were busy and bid us farewell. None of it made sense; then she was gone as quickly as she appeared. 






We have been able to get hold of a Christmas tree that we placed in our apartment. It's pretty basic but we really like it. 

We also acquired a scorpion. It came from one of the members who lived on the reservation. It was dead, but we had it for a bit.








One of the Zone Leaders went on exchanges with me, and we worked in his area with his other companion (2 Zone Leaders with 1 other missionary = their companionship so I just swapped with one of the Zone Leaders). They serve on the Indian reservation here. A lot of crazy things happened but the biggest one was in the evening. A member was performing the "hoop dance" at the casino, and we were invited to go watch it. The hoop dance is done with hula hoop type rings that they place together and intertwine on their bodies to make the shapes of various animals such as the turtle, eagle, etc. So we drove to the casino. We went inside and experienced an overwhelming smell of cigarette smoke. We asked the first person we found that works there where the hoop dance was so that we wouldn’t just wander about. They weren't aware that it was happening but they said to check the "showroom." We searched for it for a minute and had to ask another worker, "Where's the showroom?" With a confused look on their faces the pointed us in the direction we had asked to go. It turns out that there was a "Christmas" show happening in there. I place that in parenthesis for reasons I'm sure can be figured out. We then learned that there are, in fact, two casinos on the reservation...we ran from there like we were fleeing from Sodom. We quickly drove to the other casino and the cycle restarted. We asked for the showroom in this casino and received the same turning of heads and confused looks. Then, we learned that the show we were looking for was just outside the casino, and we could have found a way to get there without going through the actual casino at all. We showed up just in time and saw the hoop dance. It was really neat to watch. Apparently, some of the performers were in a music video for Nelly Furtado. The fastest way back to the car afterwards was...through the casino. We again waded through this land of sin and busted out the other end as if to be fleeing from Gomorrah. We were still in awe that this had all happened but at least we got to see the hoop dance. 

Those are my exciting experiences for the week. It's been a good one. I hope you all are having a good holiday season so far. May God bless you all.

Elder Kirk