Arizona Week 85 - Bishop

Hey everyone,

I don't have much to say this week. It's been a good week though. A lot of people came to church. 

Earlier this week we had a conversation with our Bishop and he complimented us on being mature enough to teach the families that we are teaching. He said that we were a good a companionship for these people and that we are good for them. He said that there have been several missionaries that have come through the ward that haven’t been as capable. It was nice to receive a compliment like that from him. We don't get much positive attention because we share a ward with another set of missionaries. At least the Bishop knows that we are trying to do a good job.

Well, I'm back into the tech scene of the mission. I'm working on the mission's Facebook page with another missionary (he is in the mountains). It's fun to be able to be involved in all these things. We're trying to come up with some neat ideas for the page so keep looking to see if we put anything new up.

That's all I have this week. Take care!

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 84 - Temple

Hey everyone,

This week was just the usual for most of it. The people we are teaching are making great progress. The Krawczyck family came to church for the second week in a row.

We set a baptismal date with another man we are teaching for the 28th of February.

Our investigator, Anthony, is still reading the Book of Mormon and is almost into 2 Nephi. He's is a really special guy that has a good heart. I hope that he will be baptized while we are here.

The highlight of the week was going to the temple with Harry Cruegar for his endowment. It was an interesting experience. It's been almost 2 years since I served in that area. Most everyone there had not the slightest idea of who I was. Most of them had forgotten and the ones that did remember me took a little time and some hints to recall. But that didn't matter because as I walked into the Celestial Room, I saw my friend, Harry, with tears in his eyes and the biggest smile I've ever seen on him. As I gave him a hug I was filled with joy. That is what it is all about: Gathering to the temple and receiving the ordinances and covenants that the Lord has for those who are worthy. I'm very excited to attend his sealing to his wife in the near future. For me, there isn't anything better than seeing someone that I helped bring into the gospel standing there in the temple of God.

That's all I have to share this week. I hope you all are doing well.

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 83 - Rats

Hey Everyone,

This was a fairly slow week, but we still had some good things happen.

This week we had a Zone Training Meeting. Elder Jacobson and I performed a vocal/guitar/ukulele duet of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief. It went pretty well.

Also this week, I was able to attend a baptism from my last area for a man that I taught. There were a lot of missionaries there (he had been taught for a long time) but it went very well.

The Krawczyck family came to church this week. It was good to have them there and people were friendly to them.

A funny experience we had: So we were riding along on our bikes and we saw a little end table chilling on someone's lawn with a sign that said, "free." Now the dilemma begins: "How do we get this thing home?" Well we locked up the bikes (it's starting to rain by the way) and picked it up and walked about 2 blocks to the church and stashed it there so that we can pick it up later with the zone leaders. Pretty smart I thought. We must have looked pretty silly though. Anyway, we got there and the Spanish elders' car was there (not the Spanish elders we live with but other ones). Well, we decided to scare them, because that's what we do. So, we snuck over to the part of the church that they were at and slammed a door and flickered some lights and dropped a hymn book and scratched and banged on the walls near the chapel. Then we went and sat on one of the pews that (for some reason) was right behind a little wall that completely blocked the view of the pulpit. Dumb. Well now the elders were walking around with a flashlight whispering to each other. We waited for them to get close and then we screamed. I just wish that I could have seen their faces.  But we all laughed and went back to work.

Then this morning while we were shopping at Walmart, a drunk Native American man came and talked to us. He had peed himself. He was wearing sweats so you could see very definitive urine mark on the crotch area. Yuck. We gave him a pamphlet on the Word of Wisdom.

Not much else happened. We've been trying to contact our referrals like crazy but we keep getting more. We can't keep up with it.

Anyway, have a great week everyone!

Elder Kirk

Arizona Week 82 - New Year

Hey Everyone,

Happy New Year!

It is such a relief to be done with all the holidays. The people we teach are coming back into town and everything is going back to normal.

The holidays were great though. We had a good New Years Eve. Our neighbor down stairs that had moved out said that we could break into her vacant apartment and take the couches that she had left.

Allow me to explain. About a month ago a member moved away, and they were going to throw away some couches. We said that we could give them to our downstairs neighbor who didn’t have couches. So they gave the couches to us to give to our downstairs neighbor. Now that the downstairs neighbor had moved out, she said that we could have the couches. It was pretty fun for me to pick the lock on the apartment because I got to use my lock picks on something other than a detached lock in my room. I got the lock open in less than 10 seconds. I know that when I have a place of my own that I will be buying much safer locks than you see on most homes.

New Years day we got together with another zone and played a ton of sports. It was pretty fun.

So last week we taught a guy that lives in a pretty rough neighborhood. He also looked like a pretty rough guy. Add to this that it was a drunk guy that told us to go see him. Not much for to go on for instilling confidence in the outcome of our visits. Well, last week we told him to read the beginning of The Book of Mormon up to 1 Nephi, Chapter 4. When we came by this past Saturday, he had read up to 1 Nephi, Chapter 8, and he knew what was going on. He had marked a few verses that he wanted to understand better. He told us that he "couldn't put it down." He said he reads it every night before going to bed, and he plans to read the whole book. To be honest, I was pretty surprised but also very happy. I expect that he will be joining the church through baptism in a month or so. Giving up smoking will probably be the hardest thing for him.

Well I hope you all have a great week.

Elder Kirk

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