First off, I just want to say happy birthday to my big bro Garrison (other Elder Beach) serving up in Minnesota. It sounds really weird to say that he's 20 years old. Also, as of yesterday, he only has 8 months left being a missionary. :( That probably makes him more sad than me, but it still makes me sad. I know he loves it, as do I.
Unfortunately, as has been the case here in Scottsboro for the last couple of weeks, this week was pretty slow as far as finding and teaching goes. That being said, it was still a fun week, we were able to find several potential investigators, and we did get to make some good memories.
Last Tuesday and Wednesday we had an exchange with the Zone Leaders over in Huntsville. The Zone Leaders (as well as a few other companionships in the zone who live close by) go to this place called Rock Steady Boxing like once or twice a week. It's basically a crossfit gym, but they also use it as a boxing gym for people who have Parkinson's. Boxing/working out in general apparently is really good at slowing the progression of Parkinson's. So every once in a while they all go over there in the morning to work out and then volunteer and help the Parkinson's people with their workouts. For our exchange we got to go there and help out. It's really fun, and it's nice to actually do a good workout. (Here in Scottsboro we have no gym at our apartment complex and we have no weights in the apartment. It's hard to do good workouts sometimes, but we do our best.) So anyway, that was really fun and I was actually sore the next day for the first time in a while. They also gave all of us these bright yellow Rock Steady shirts which we all wore to the zone activity today (Oct. 23). After we went to Rock Steady, we planned for the rest of the day and then we went out and hit it. I went with Elder Fotu this time and Elder Hastings went with Elder Krupa. We had a solid exchange and Elder Krupa and Elder Fotu told us that it was one of the best nights they had had there in a while. Elder Fotu and I didn't have a whole lot of luck knocking doors or meeting up with potentials, but we did go to the mall to do some finding and were able to talk to a bunch of people (several of them already knew some of the members in the ward), we got a bunch of phone numbers to go talk to them again, and invited several people to church. Elder Hastings and Elder Krupa went to the park to find, and they had some funny stories to tell that night. They met like 4 different couples (2 of which were on their first dates), along with a bunch of other people, and they were able to place like 4-5 copies of the Book of Mormon. All four of us finished the night at Arby's for $1 sliders and cookie butter milkshakes. At Arby's, Elder Fotu also got the number of the cashier, and I'm pretty sure he said we could come teach him. It was a solid finding night. However, the non-missionary work highlights of the night were after we got back to the apartment. Like a month ago, I bought a bunch of those invisible ink pens that you can only see under a black light. Se we have been decorating our apartment here in Scottsboro pretty good. Well, I brought a couple of them to the exchange and we decorated their apartment too. Also, Elder Krupa acquired a ukulele, so now all four of us have one. So, obviously, we had a solid uke jam session and we also officially started a band called 4-Strings. (It's pretty much the best band ever). Our first album will be coming out shortly... Anyway, that's pretty much it for the exchange. We had fun, did work, and were able to get Byrd Springs (that's the ZLs area) like 12 new potentials.
This week we met with Roger a couple of times. He showed us this video called "Why I hate religion, but love Jesus." It was really weird, and it wasn't very true in regards to Jesus Christ's true church. The video kind of just threw down on all these man-made, somewhat hypocritical churches. I don't know why he showed us that, but he did. Anyway, we kind of just put that aside by explaining to him that while that may be true for some churches, this is literally the church that Jesus Christ established and that he still is at the head of today. Roger has also been continuing to read the Book of Mormon, even though he hasn't been to church in a while. We asked him why he reads and he just told us "to get more knowledge and insight" or something to that effect. We asked him if he felt like he had received that knowledge yet, and he just told us that he wanted to know the purpose of life. Well, what do you know, the Book of Mormon has the answers. I turned to Alma 34:32, read it, explained that the way we prepare to meet God is by living the Gospel. And so I invited him to be baptized again. He sat there for like a solid 3 minutes just thinking, and then he just said, "Can I be honest with you?" He then told us that there were things that he felt like he hadn't yet been forgiven of, and that he felt like he couldn't forgive himself for. I asked him, "if you ever get to that point where you do feel forgiven, is baptism something that you want to do?" He told us that it was. We committed him to CPR (Church EVERY week, Pray and Read the Book of Mormon EVERY day). He told us that he would do that, and we just promised him that forgiveness comes through doing those things--being obedient--and putting your life in line with God's will.
This week we also met Larry and Sandra again. Larry has been reading the Book of Mormon a little bit, and we have to find time to teach them in between them talking. They LOVE to talk, and it's hard to get away sometimes (haha there's a lot of those people in Scottsboro). We had plans to invite them to church, but Elder and Sister Dance (one of the senior couples) called while we were there and said they were at our apartment for inspections, so we had to cut it short. Larry and Sandra are great people, I'm just not sure if they feel like what we share is that important right now. But we'll keep teaching them unless it gets to the point where they don't want to progress.
This week Dustin had us over one night for dinner. While we were there, some homeboy named Timothy just walked into his house, sat down, and started talking to us. He also helped himself to some food. It was really weird, and we could tell that Dustin didn't really want him there. But Dustin didn't kick him out, so we kept talking and teaching. We ended up giving him a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet, and he told us we could come over and talk to him some more sometime. So that was cool, and we also got dinner and a review of the Restoration with Dustin.
We met a couple of new people who we were able to teach a little bit and give away copies of the Book of Mormon to. Unfortunately, almost every one of our return appointments fell through. It was kind of a bummer, but we'll just go back another time and hopefully catch them when they can talk for a bit. Also, like I said earlier, we committed Roger to come to church yesterday, and he said that he would be there. He didn't show up. He did call us during Sunday School, but when we called him back he didn't answer. We also called him one other time a couple hours later and texted him, but no response. I'm not sure what his deal is, but we do have an appointment with him tonight.
One more highlight of the week: Sister Williams from the branch told us that she would get us some food or something like that. Well, we went over to her house at the time when she told us to come get it, and she basically just told us, "I haven't had time to go to the store, so just go through my pantry and take what you want." She is really serious about food storage, and so she had a lot of stuff. I kind of felt bad taking all that food, but even as we were leaving she kept insisting on us taking more and more. She, and all of the members here, really love the missionaries. All of them are great member missionaries as well, and we love all of them.
Anyway, though this week has been a little rough we did get to do a lot of fun things, see people we love, teach the gospel, and invite people to come unto Christ. I may not be able to see a whole lot of the fruits of our labor right now, but we are seeing some. I know that this is the Lord's work, and He will have it go forward no matter what. I'm so thankful for the opportunity I have to assist Him in it. Like us missionaries say every day, "We are steadfast in Christ!"
Much love,
Elder Beach
#RollTide
#4Stringz
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