This week there was another storm (hurricane Nate, I believe) and I guess down south of us it was pretty bad. Up here in Scottsboro it wasn't bad, there was just a lot of rain. But on Saturday night we got the call from the Zone Leaders who told us that President Sainsbury asked the whole mission to stay indoors until he said we could go out. So we didn't get to go to church on Sunday, which was a bummer because we didn't get to take the sacrament for the second straight week (last week was due to Conference). We called President Bennett (our Branch President) and told him that we wouldn't be at church because we were told that we couldn't leave the apartment. He thought that was pretty dumb, but we have to be obedient, so we didn't go to church yesterday. It was a pretty boring day. We didn't do a whole lot. We got up at 6:30 as usual, I ate breakfast and then went back to bed. After a couple hour nap, I read "Jesus the Christ" for a while, we cleaned our apartment, played some mini golf, and we basically just did nothing all day. We read, studied, cleaned, golfed, played the uke, and that's about it. We called some of the other missionaries in the zone to see what they did. A lot of them did the same things we did. The Sparkman Elders said that they built a pillow fort, so that was exciting. We actually did a couple of other things: Elder Hastings said that the bunk bed we have is the only bunk bed in the mission. Well, he was sick of climbing onto the top bunk every day, so we took apart the only bunk bed in the mission and rearranged the bedroom so that it would fit both beds. That was pretty exciting.
So Sunday was pretty boring, but there was one thing that we did which was really cool. Last Wednesday we had a Zone Conference and President Sainsbury proposed an idea to all of us missionaries. (He actually put the idea out to the whole mission). The plan was that each fast Sunday, the whole mission would set aside an hour, from 4-5 PM, to just pray. It's called our "Mighty Hour of Prayer." So that's what we did from 4-5 on Sunday, was just pray. It was actually the quickest hour of the day, believe it or not. It was a great experience. We are going to keep doing it every month now as a mission. It was not something I had ever done before. The longest that I had ever prayed was maybe 20 minutes. But during that hour I found so many things to be grateful for. And so many things that I am dependent on our Heavenly Father for. And so many things that I need to do better. I almost wish that we did it for longer. I invite all of you reading this--not every month, but at least one time in your life--to try a Mighty Hour of Prayer. I promise that it will be a revelatory experience for you.
I mentioned Zone Conference. Last Wednesday our zone (Huntsville) and the Madison zone got together to learn about missionary stuff. Last Monday President Sainsbury sent us something on our emails that was really cool, which he wanted each of us to think about in preparation for Zone Conference. He said:
Baptizing converts is the goal
Repentance is the process
Obedience is the price
Faith is the power
Love is the motive
The Spirit is the key
The Restoration is the message
The Members are the means
Christ is the reason
Joy is the reward
President asked us all to prepare a 2-3 minute talk about one of those 10 lines, and he chose a couple of us to share. I wasn't chosen, but the assignment gave me a chance to think about each of those things. They are all absolutely true. We talked about a lot of things at Zone Conference, that being one of them. We also talked a lot about how to stay out and be productive until 9 PM. The sun goes down at like 6:45 PM right now (which means it will probably go down at like 4:30 in the winter), and something that is really weird to me is that when the sun goes down, everyone goes to bed. And everyone who isn't in bed tells us that we are out too "late," even if it's only 7 o'clock. Basically, it's just really hard to be productive in the evenings unless you have appointments scheduled. But we have been doing our very best to be as productive as possible in the evenings. It's hard, but we're making it work most of the time.
We've been really excited about Roger for the last couple of weeks. Last Tuesday we taught him the Word of Wisdom. We practiced a lot beforehand in companionship study, and I felt like the lesson went really well. We really focused on teaching him about specific blessings that come from keeping it, and we also focused on letting him know that we didn't want him to keep the Word of Wisdom out of obligation to us, but out of love for Heavenly Father, and as a way that he can draw nearer to Christ. We also asked him to pray to know if this really was a commandment from God, and something that Roger felt like he should live. We committed him to live it, and it really felt like he was going to do his best to. He told us that he would come to the Book of Mormon class the next day (Wednesday), but he didn't come. We tried calling/texting him several times, but he never answered/responded. We felt like he might have just dropped us because he decided that he didn't want to live the Word of Wisdom. Anyway, we couldn't get a hold of him for a few days, and we were pretty bummed. Finally on Saturday night we just stopped by unannounced at his house. He let us in, and we talked with him for a while. We reiterated what we had told him about deciding for himself if he should keep the Word of Wisdom. We don't want him to do it purely out of obligation to us. We also talked about coming to church. We didn't want him to feel like living the Word of Wisdom was a prerequisite for his coming to church. We also taught him about how taking the sacrament is a great way to remember our Savior, ask for His help, and commit to doing your best to follow him. Roger is kind of questioning his testimony because of this whole Word of Wisdom thing. When we asked him if we could expect him at church, he said, "I don't want to say no, but I don't want to say yes either." We prayed with him, but when we left his house he pulled out a cigarette and started smoking again. I'm pretty sad about Roger. He knows this stuff is true, he just has a hard time with one thing, and because of that one thing he is questioning everything. I know that he can find the strength and desire to do what is right if he just keeps reading the Book of Mormon, keeps praying, and keeps coming to church to take the sacrament. Soon after we left his house, we got the call that we had to stay inside on Sunday, so we had to let Roger know that we wouldn't be there at church. I don't know if he went, but I'm pretty sure if he had any desires to go, they were lost when we told him that we wouldn't be there. Roger took up a good chunk of my "mighty hour of prayer" yesterday. I hope and pray that he will decide to do what is right.
This week I have been really working on loving people more. For my 2-3 minute Zone Conference talk, I chose the line "love is the motive." Then I realized that most people would probably pick that one, so I switched to "the Spirit is the key." So basically I wrote short talks for both of them. But the reason that I have been focusing on loving people more is because I have noticed that sometimes during door approaches and stuff I find myself sort of debating people, not necessarily to prove them wrong, but to prove myself right. I know that God works with prophets, I know that Jesus established His church when He was on the earth, I know that His church was lost after He and His Apostles were killed, and I know that His same church was reestablished through another Prophet--Joseph Smith. I want so bad for people to know this that I just try so hard to prove it to them. In my mind, the entire first lesson (the Restoration) is just so logically complete, that it's frustrating when people don't see it. That's why I have found myself not really arguing with people, but just trying too hard to prove to them that that is what really happened. I have recognized that I really just need to love them, and not infringe upon their agency. Most people choose not to listen or act upon the things we teach them. That's okay. If I loved them, taught them, invited them, and gave them every opportunity to come unto Christ by receiving the Restored Gospel, and they chose not to, then I don't need to be frustrated. I did my part, and that's all I need to do.
Dad asked me a couple of weeks ago to share some of the blessings/things I've gained from choosing to serve a mission. Here are a couple that I have thought about:
1) I've strengthened my testimony so much. It's definitely possible to gain a strong testimony without serving a mission. But as I take time each and every day to study the scriptures, to learn from them, and to teach people about the things that I know, I have just gained such a strong testimony that what we teach as missionaries is true.
2) I've learned that the Savior loves us. Much in the same way that I expressed in my paragraph above, Jesus has invited all to come unto Him and then he sees many who choose not to. Yet unlike me, He loves us perfectly. He'll never give up on us, and never keep inviting us until we are home in His arms.
3) The Book of Mormon is true, and like President Nelson said last week in Conference, it "contains the full power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." I've tried really hard recently to help people realize this fact: if the Book of Mormon is true, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is literally Jesus Christ's church on the earth. I know that there is power in that Book, and there is doctrine and power contained in its pages unlike any other book.
4) I've learned the power of prayer. There is no way that a bunch of 18-22 year olds could carry on this work without Divine help. And that Divine help is unlocked through prayer. We should never hesitate to get on our knees and pour out our hearts to our Father in Heaven. He is there to listen, and there to help us. This was powerfully reiterated to me during our Mighty Hour of Prayer yesterday.
Those are just a few of the things I have learned and some of the blessings that I have seen from deciding to dedicate a small part of my life to the Lord in His service. I'm so thankful to Him for all of the lessons that I have learned and all of the blessing that I see, both in my life and in the lives of those we come in contact with.
Well, I hope all of you had a solid week. I'm so grateful that I have the chance to represent our Savior Jesus Christ here in Alabama and bring people His true Gospel. I'm so thankful for all of the people who read these letters, who love and pray for me and those I have the opportunity to teach. I love this work, I love our Savior, and I love all you.
Elder Beach
#RollTide
Training!
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