First12weeks

HOLY COW guys this is all so crazy! I am actually here in NE!! I'll get right in to it because I don't have a lot of time! so first off its so great to hear from everyone! i love all of your mail, it makes me so happy! I love you guys!

So the people here in Pappillion are amazing. Almost everyone is happy to see us, alot of times they just invite us in to give us water, but they don't want our message haha. I will have you all know that I weigh a healthy 157 pounds as of yesterday! The food is out of this world and the corn is absolutely amazing!  We had dinner with a Hispanic family last night and it was so insanely good. I even ate all the peppers and onions and tomatoes and I couldn't get enough of the "carne" (steak)

My companion Elder George is pretty neat, he does some sweet yo yo tricks, our apartment is ok, it smells like old bacon and the carpet looks like it has been there for a while, but I love it and its like home to me now. I even bought my own coffee table for our living room! I learned how to make home made ties as well, and so I have been hard at work with that! Sadly No tornadoes yet, but the corn is super tall.

Some of my miracles this week: This is the coolest and my favorite one, we went to go visit a less active member in some apartment complexes, and she didn't answer. So we went to walk out the doors and as soon as I stepped out on the street I had a voice in my head that said " turn right" so I did...my companion who was pretty confused asked where I was going, to which I replied I have no idea. We got to the next apartment building and the same voice said "21" so I looked on the door and sure enough the top floor was where apartment 21 was. so me and Elder George hiked all the way up and I gave the door a knock. An older lady answered and I began to share with her the restoration. She listened politely and when i finished said: "you know boys, its so weird you showed up here today, because I just got off the phone with my friend in Sioux City and she was telling me all bout how she meets with the missionaries," Shocked and overjoyed I said that's awesome! We got her phone number and gave her a book of Mormon! Sadly we have to refer her to the sisters because she is a single lady. But none the less the spirit is a weird thing and it was an awesome experience! 

Second: Me and my companion having finished our tracting some  gang bangers playing ball at a local park. All tatted up a big hispanic man and a shorter black man, I said hey I want to go play ball. So we walked up to them intoduced ourselves and they told us their names were. They asked if we wanted to play a game of 21. I replied with a heck yes. So in my church clothes name tag and all i took these gangsters to school. I won the game of 21 broke some ankles dribbled through some guys legs and dropped some threes right in their faces. "this white kid is takin us to church son." "we done got hustled by a white boy." and " this is an all american point guard here." were some of my favorite quotes of the day haha. They were rather shocked when i said i wrestled for 13 years haha, we were able to get names, numbers, and give them book of mormons. And of course while we played we taught the restoration. 

I will say however that some people really hate the mormons. Ive been mocked, yelled at, kicked off porches, and quite frequently laughed and and told that my religion is wrong. We went to get honey at a local farmers market (my idea) and one guy selling wood items wouldnt even let us look. He yelled at us and told us to get the heck away...but you know what..i love everyone here. i dont care who thinks what, bottom line is i love this place and all the people in it. The lord is preparing this place. Ill take a door slammed in my face or a man yelling at me, over any other day. This work is so important. if i can tell you anything, its to help with the work in any way that you can. i LOVE it. I love you guys so much, please pray together and read. its vital to the spirit being in the home. Keep me updated, good luck to all of you at school! study hard. 

I got couple potential baptisms on the horizon, but i dont want to jinx myself so ill tell you about that if it happens! I love you all and im looking forward to hearing from you again! have a safe week. God Speed. Love you all

Gratefully,

Elder Kirby

Family!! holy cow you all sound so busy! its always so great to hear from you! i love hearing about all the various activities! its awesome! I am sad to hear about the truck and the car..man thats brutal, but maybe it was someone who needed it more than we did. You dont have to worry about replacing my stuff, thats what a job is for when i get home! im really sorry to hear about all the rest of the stuff. Im sure the lord will send blessings your way! i love you guys so much!

MY WEEK WAS INSANE. we had to move because our apartment was super gross, so president wanted us out ASAP. so we are in a members home who is really cool.  we are living in his basement living room. he set up a door as a privacy wall haha. its small, but we will be moving again to another members home in a month.  So that was really cool but the coolest part of the week is.....I SAW A REAL LIFE TORNADO! it was so cool! it was like 20 miles away, and technically it is a water spout because it was on a lake...but nevertheless it was awesome! all the locals were saying how small it was, but i was a little scared! No one was hurt, so that was good, i hope i get to see another one a little closer!! So on to the most important part of my week, one of our investigators, Florence, accepted our invitation to come to church. and she did! all three hours of it! and she participated in all the classes, and she even said that she wanted to bring Margret, who is another lady we are teaching! so that was awesome, but here was the good part, she said she would only come if she could bring her dog. We asked the bishop and he said it was cool haha, so florence brought her chihuahua to church on sunday haha it was a big hit!  

Some of my miracles this week: we were knocking on a less active members door in an apartment complex, she didnt answer so we went to leave and i was bouncing my tennis ball around and this man stick his head out his door and says " hey did yall knock on my door?" and i said no sir, we knocked on the door across the hall, and he says "cool, do you want to come in?" so of course we say yes. This man  invites us in, sits us down, and hands us two huge Fiji waters and we start talking. He tells us that he just got off vacation, i asked where from and he says jail haha. so at this point im a little freaked out, we later find out that he plays video games for a living and tests them too. We ask if we can share our message, and he says "yeah but can we go on the porch, i want to smoke." so we went out on the porch and he lights up this huge cigar and says to me "its a cuban, you want a puff?" i laughed and said no thank you. we taught him the restoration and invited him to be baptized. he said yes, but we couldnt get a date, so nothing official yet. we are following up with him this week! But still it was so random and so crazy haha!

Anyhow, this week was way fun and i am so happy to be out here!  Thank you for everything! Please keep me posted on school and sports. Tell everyone i say hello! Clynt, Oak, and Emma. You guys need to be actively sharing the gospel EVERY chance you get ok? just find one person a month to give a book of mormon to. It will be awkward at times, but its the invitation and effort that changes lives. Please all of you study the first vision and the intro to the Book of Mormon ok? Also love your enemies, i know its hard, but i love a poem that i came across that talks about the savior and his sacrifice, he loved those people who killed and tortured him. "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." where the saviors final words on the cross. I know its hard to be kind to the people that hate you, but just trying to understand those people and loving them will make all the difference and i can testify to you all that it will change your life. I am so proud of all of you, keep up the good work! 

Love you,  Elder Kirby

I'm not gonna lie, this week was pretty rough. Investigators falling through, getting turned away, getting bible bashed by some guy for an hour. The only highlight was zone conference! But I am staying strong and doing the best I can! So I want to tell you about the guy that bashed us. Soooo he was actually a referral, and we went and knocked and he answered the door, so I started sharing the restoration, and I got to the part where I say " Joseph smith was reading in James 1:5 and that says if any of ye lack wisdom let him ask of God." the man interrupts me, and says, " so Joseph smith got his authority from the bible?" I didn't know what to say to that, I said well not authority, but he received it through personal revelation that he should pray and ask God which church was true....Then all hell broke loose. He pauses and says "let me get my bible." I turned to Elder George when he went inside and said, "he's going to bash us, we better get out of here quick." and flipping George was like "lets hear him out" so the man comes out and begins preaching to us telling us how the bible is the only way to be saved and how I was damned to hell because I was teaching and trying to persuade people to join a deceitful religion. Keep in mind, I was trying to leave from the get go. And then he brought Gordon. B. Hinckley into it. and that's when I started to get a little upset. He said that Pres. Hinckley had announced that Mormons weren't Christians. and I told him.."oh yeah? well I,d sure like to see that talk mister." and he said oh well it was before your time and I would have to look to find it. So I concluded that I just needed to bear testimony and get the heck out of there. So I did, " I know that the things in the book of Mormon are true and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. I know that I had to work and exercise my faith in order to know these things. and I don't have any doubts, and I testify to you that this church and its leaders are true." he said "you don't know that, you've been brain washed for years to just say that because its been pounded in your head." I thought to my self, old man ill show you pounded in the head if you don't keep your mouth shut." but I didn't say anything and just took it for another half an hour. at which point we finally left. The coolest part about that story however was that I could feel the spirit within myself testifying to me that this church is true. Never have I felt the spirit like that before. It was truly amazing. when we got in the car, me and Elder George said a prayer thanking Heavenly Father for that opportunity and for the restored gospel. at the end we were both in tears haha it was pretty sweet! im so thankful for that opportunity! I learned so much and I know that this church is true!

but other than that, my week was alright! zone conference was flippin sweet! lots of good stuff! one of my favorite things was "have the faith to not find people to teach."-Pres G money. I was so confused when he said that, but after he explained that the next level of faith is beliving in Gods will, not our own. if he wants us to find people, we will. But I thought that it was so cool to think about things in that way! I also am just about to finish the Book of Mormon again, and then ill be pounding my bible just in case anyone wants to bash haha. I didn't like not being prepared. Also just so you know next week is exchanges with our zone leaders, so ill be in a different part of Omaha called Gretna with my homie Elder craig, who goes home in 3 weeks! should be way fun! he is the man! I call him Grandpa Craig haha! ill take lots of pics! I love you all so much and I am so proud of each of you. Keep doing amazing things, and give away as much gospel knowledge as you have and really stretch yourself to learn more. Study the realationship between the Bible and the Book of Mormon, I would just give it to you, but as Bednar would say, "whats the point of learning if you don't do it on your own?" so look for different things, Preach my gospel is a good start. Anyhow fam. have a good week, study hard and make me proud! I love you all!

Elder Kirby

So my week this week was rather interesting, I went on exchanges with Elder Craig and it was amazing, we learned so much and saw a bunch of little miracles that really strengthened my testimony. Grandpa Craig is the man, he taught me so much about the gospel. He has a study journal that is 300 pages that he just filled that is full of personal study. It is complete with footnotes and an index. oh and I forgot to mention that he started this one in December. so it inspired me to start my own, and I had day one yesterday and I am excited to see how it goes. When I got back with Elder George, we went to a thing called "farm friday". A few weeks ago we met some nice farmers at the local farmers market and they invited us out on Friday to do some farm work and they would feed us lunch. so we decided to go out. When we got to the farm everything looked fairly normal, its like a 4 acre plot around this guys house. We started the grand tour, and that's when I was like what the heck is this place. The farm is "all natural" so no chemicals of any kind. And no kidding it looks like this son of a gun just grabbed random seeds and chucked them all over. There was no organization what so ever! it was sketchy. Then he grabs a leaf off of some plant and was like I wonder what this tastes like. So he ate the leaf. "tastes like cucumber" was all he said. so he hands me this leaf that is prickly and has tons of hairs and says "give it a try" so I thought well I got nothing else to lose. so I popped it in my mouth and sure enough it tasted like cucumbers. but I spit it out because of the hairs. 

I also had a old lady that we teach make me promise I would contact Ellen so that she could have a surgery that she cant afford. it was kind of sad, and I couldn't tell her no, so now I have been asking all the members of the ward to see if they can get me in contact with her hahaha. its crazy. she always buys us a ton of ties, so my collection is growing at a rapid pace haha! We also were able to take a recent convert Mark to the temple this week, and holy cow was that nuts. He printed off two names, from his family tree, and he went in the font and got dunked 7 times because he kept trying to swim and kick his feet haha! it was his birthday too, he turned 59 and he is hilarious. The temple was so beautiful, and I couldn't help but shed a few tears as this man who has overcome so many different challenges walked down into that font. wow. Marks testimony of this gospel is far stronger than I could ever hope to be. truly a miracle to watch someone you love walk into the doors of the temple.

Other than that, pretty slow week! we woke up early this morning and went fishing at a lake by our house. Everyone thought I was dumb for buying a spinner to catch bass, but it payed off, I caught 4 and had 1 long distance release. haha we are going again tonight to try and catch some catfish. wish me luck! anyhow, I want you to know that I know this gospel is true, and there is nowhere else i'd rather be. Missionary work is so amazing. I absolutely love it.

 I love all of you guys and I am so happy to be a missionary. Thank you for all you do to support me it means a lot and I can feel and see those blessings. We are working and I have been studying my butt off. My knowledge of the gospel has increased, but I still have so much to learn.  I can promise blessings will come as you read and pray. Seek the lords hand in your daily work, he WILL provide. I pray to meet just one soul everyday. But I also acknowledge the lords hand in this work, and I have that faith not to find anyone if im not supposed to. but the lord has always given me one soul to help in my day. Pray for that and share the gospel at school. Thats my biggest regret is not sharing the gospel with everyone. let the spirit guide you and you wont do any thing wrong. i love you all, keep it up! sending prayers your way. Love ya.

Elder Kirby

My week: First off exchanges were straight fire. I went with our district leader to a place called Rockbrook, Elder Roos is a very quiet kid from Logan, but he is a hoot and a half. We went deep into the Spanish ghetto of Omaha. Like I mean deep. They call it little Mexico because 90% of the peeps there speak Spanish. He was sorta depressed because we had to go to that area, so I asked him why he was so upset and he said "well its almost a waste of time because we don't speak Spanish." I grinned as he said this, because I took it as a challenge. So sure enough we start pounding the brick streets of little Mexico and I ran into this young Spanish family and said hello, they waved us on and said "no habla engles" to which I responded "como estas" they were so shocked and we carried on a little conversation, and I gave them just enough info to take a Spanish Book of Mormon. I LOVED it. I gave away 2 books and taught the restoration to 3 people in Spanish, of course it was really rough and not very good, but I thought that, we are missionaries and it is our sacred responsibility to try and share the gospel with everyone. it wasn't fair of me to not share just because there was a language barrier, I took 2 years of Spanish for a reason haha. anyhow, so that was pretty sweet, we ate some good food at a little Mexican shop and then had a pretty slow day.

    My next cool thing happened the next day, our investigator wanted a bigger BofM so we got her a  huge one and took it over to her so she could start reading. When we showed up, she was in tears because she was so excited. I felt prompted and asked her to be baptized.. So I was pumped out of my mind, and that was the end of our night. well, My heart broke and I wanted to just sit down and cry right where I was. But I prayed so hard that night for a miracle on sunday.  we even decided to fast as a companionship. The next morning, I decided to call her and invite her to church, much to my surprise she said yes,  that is a miracle if I've ever seen one. But it gets better. So she has various health issues and she got really sick after sacrament, and wanted to go home, so we said that's ok, and out of nowhere, the sister missionaries in our ward come flying down the hall saying that she is sick and wants a blessing. So we went and talked to her and asked her who she wanted to giver her this blessing and almost instantly, "Elder Kirby", so I stepped up, shaking like crazy put my hands on this womans head and offered her a blessing. I have no recollection of what I said, but I could feel the spirit quite literally pulsing through me. It was sick. Then when I was finished, she stood up with tears in her eyes, and said "thank you for that phone call." wow. that's all I have to say is wow. She gave me a hug too and I was a little shell shocked haha it was ok though, cause she is 70. haha! we are going to keep working on her, its just amazing the faith that she has and how much the Lord really loves her. its so nuts. anyhow, it was awesome to experience.

Hey momma, and family. So good news and bad news, not a very productive week, our investigator is dropping us. On Thursday after our lesson, so that kinda sucks! but maybe we will see miracles. So we just found out today that Elder George is going to be the new disctrict leader, which means I am his assistant! so that is sweet! I get to also take out a new Elder today after we get done here! That is going to be legit as well. I have been studying my butt off in the scriptures. Im already in Alma, and I cant get enough, there literally is not enough time to read in the day! I absolutely love the BofM its so great and has so many hidden symbols and teachings about Christ. its just awesome. If you get time, I want you all as a family to watch on youtube Jefferey R Hollands "testimony of the Book of Mormon" its life changing. Please please please watch that together. I love hearing from all of you. So game day in Omaha its nuts. literally the whole town wears red. And no one is outside. It turns into a ghost town as soon as the pre game starts. I did break down and buy a huskers hat to wear in the car haha! its pretty sweet! I got to also go to downtown Omaha and see the famous pioneer statues yesterday! it was way cool, I also got to watch the labor day parade! Good stuff out here in Omaha. Im trying to get ahold of the local highschool wrestling coach to see if I can do some morning workouts with the team. I taught Elder George stance, hand control, and shots yesterday. So i'm getting my new partner trained up so we can practice haha! Other than that, Papio is pretty slow right now, but we are going to pick some things up around here now that we are in charge. Anyhow family, I am sorry I don't have very many stories this week, but hopefully next week is a little more exciting! until then, keep me updated about everything going on! Be nice to the elders and clyde give them hugs, because we don't get many hugs. And its nice occasionally to get one. I love you guys and I miss you like crazy, the time is flying by! Work hard and Study your scriptures! I love ya fam.

Sorry it took so long to email, our Internet at the library went out, and I couldn't mail! Everything is going well here and I am so happy to hear from you guys! I love you all so much!

My week, well it was a hectic one, so on Tuesday, we did some service for the Marshall's, and we were just tearing down there shed, I was on the roof cutting some stuff with a saws all and Brother Marshall knocked out the support beam and the whole roof almost came down. I decided at that point I probably ought to get off the roof haha! We have been trying to find some new peeps to teach, so that's what we did all day Tuesday is finding. it was sweet! Wednesday we had district meeting, and it was good, then we tried a few peeps with no luck and then had our ward correlation meeting! Thursday we moved a huge couch super early in the morning, and then taught Matt that afternoon. Me and Elder George set up a service project with our youth at the Dodd family farm that we teach! it was so good, and Farmer John is reading and learning so fast! I  have high hopes for him in the future!! Friday was a joke day, we laid some sod for a guy in the Bellvue Ward, and it was easy, I knocked it out pretty quick! then we packed up our whole room and moved in with Dr. Schooff! His house is HUGE! and our closet is the size of our old room. So I'm sitting pretty good right now! We can literally do cartwheels in our study room and our bedroom is pretty big as well! I'm so happy to get out of my small room that we were staying in! Saturday and Sunday were really good with general conference, I took like 6 pages of notes, but a quote that stood out to me was " I'll build thee, and thee build me, and together we will obtain eternity." I loved that, I love serving others, and that quote just reminded me that service is so important in fellow shipping others into our church. I loved conference.

Update on the music skills, I can read music fairly well now, and I have begun playing the piano. Elder George is such a good teacher! I'm learning some hymns now! I love music, its so awesome! I can play the right hand stuff fairly well, its just like the bass notes and the chords that really throw me off! But I love it and I am working hard on that as well! That basically sums up my week! I'm going to play ball today after we get done e mailing, also i am proud to report that i am 5 weeks without soda of any kind. It feels so nice! I'm cutting out other sweets slowly! 

Future Husker,

Elder Kirby

YOOOOOO fam! Sounds like Idaho is still there and doing well! I'm so happy to hear from you all! I had a pretty sweet week!! Thanks again for all your messages!

My week was pretty flippin cool!!! So the biggest parts of my week, were we taught M who is an older lady we teach, her Brother was just baptized 6 months ago. So we taught her another restoration lesson and it was so good! I'm so excited for her progression.  Next on Friday, we got a surprise text that said hey zone, we are going to the temple today. Be here at 11! so I was super pumped to go!! Well when we got there it ended up that the session was too full, so president asked for some people to do initiatory for some of his family names. So I ended up doing that with 3 other elders!! It was so amazing, I love the temple so much, but I do have to say, the Provo one is still my favorite! We also went to this place called LOLO's which is like this African American chicken and waffles place. OH MY GOSH it was the best thing ever!! it totally made the whole day perfect. So the next day we taught our investigator Matt. it was a good lesson, and we even invited him to be baptized again, and he said he would only if he could clean the font with bleach. So we said yeah I guess you could do that haha. He is a clean freak. its insane. So Sunday was a good day as well, we had a good time at church and then later that evening, We taught the Dodd family. The lesson was incredible. We taught the "Gospel of Jesus Christ" lesson and it was by far one of the most spiritual experiences I have ever had. You could tell that what we were teaching really touched him and his wife. Not to mention the miracle that happened!! Ok so we wanted to take this member with us, and he cancelled last minute. So we happen to run into the cottonwood sisters and say hey we need a member from your ward to come out with us tonight, who do you know? and they got us this man who was super happy and pumped to come with us. Turns out the guy grew up in Grace and totally know all about that area!? that was cool, but then when we got out to the Dodds house, they figured out that they both home school at the same place, they both are writers, and they both only like organic stuff. We couldn't get them to shut up because they just kept finding more and more things in common!! The lesson ended up being 2 and a half hours long. But it was so good. 

After that lesson, we had two Elders from Huron South Dakota come down to stay the night with us because they had a dentist appointment down here and they live 5 hours away. It was cool because one of them was Elder Peterson who I took out on his first day! it was nice to see him again! So yesterday, since we had a long P day, we got together with like 10 other Elders and had a NERF war in the gym of our church!! it was so much fun! And no one got their eye shot out so that was a bonus! we found these guns that leave welts from how hard they shoot!! it was a blast haha!  I am going to the zoo next week with some other Elders as well so i am really excited about that! 

My week was good, i'm working on memorizing scriptures. we have 36 required ones in the first tier, there are four tiers total, but with each one we get a reward! Elder George finished the first tier in a week, and I have 13 done right now, but its so hard! Anyhow, I know the lord will help me accomplish anything I am willing to work for! I love this church and everyone in it. I know that it is the only true and living church on the face of the earth. And i have gained a stronger testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Anyone can partake of that atonement and feel the Exceeding joy that it brings. So no matter what i am going through, i know that i can turn to my savior for comfort, because he has stood right where i have and felt everything that i am. I stand as a witness to the divine love Heavenly Father has for his children. I watch this gospel change people everyday, and i know without a doubt that what i am doing is the work of God. I am having so much fun out here! I cant wait for my future adventures!  

Hey Fam

, I'm happy to be able to write you again, I sure miss you guys! 

This week was good, not very eventful, but good nonetheless! So this week, I got a flu shot. And the only reason I did, was because Target was giving $5 gift cards to anyone who got one there, so I decided to take one for the team so I could get some chips and a gatorade. It was a sacrifice well worth it. The only other really cool thing I did was at farm friday this week, I got to play with a scythe!! it was so much fun! I cut down a bunch of Sweet potato plants so we could dig them up easier! We dug up over 100 pounds of sweet potatoes by hand. I got a pretty sweet blister from that, but oh well haha! We are going out to teach the Dodds tonight after we E mail. Lets see, So this week, I finished my "12 week training" so I am finally done being trained!! Thank goodness, The only bad thing about that, is on Wednesday we start a new transfer, so Elder George might be leaving me! I'll be sad if he goes, because he is a really great missionary, and has taught me a ton! but you never know, I could even be the one leaving Papillion! we don't find out until tomorrow morning! OH YEAH!! WE WENT TO THE ZOO TODAY!!! it was so much fun and so cool! it is voted the best zoo in the nation for a reason! it is so cool! I loved it! There are so many cool animals and different things to do! its all indoors, and has like a giant desert dome and a huge aquarium as well! definitley one of the coolest things I have ever done! We had a blast! Anyhow, that kinda wraps up my week as far as cool things that happened, it is starting to get kinda slow around here! But we are still working hard! I got a weight set from Matt, and i have been lifting everyday! my legs were so tired today that i could barely walk up our stairs! Haha i was getting kinda chubby though! Well that wraps up my week, im still having a ton of fun out here! Hopefully more fun stories next week! we get to take out new missionaries tomorrow! so that will be fun! Anyhow more to come next week!

Love,

Elder Kirby