Former Investigators

Hello to all of y'all back home, at school, serving missions, working, or wherever you may be.  I hope all is well with ya.

This week we had a bit of good fortune and a bit of not so good fortune with finding and teaching people.  Several days ago Elder Fotu called (he used to be our zone leader and previous to that he served in Scottsboro) and he told us about a couple of people that he had met that we could go see.  Neither of them were in the area book for whatever reason.  Well, one of them lives in an apartment complex and Elder Fotu didn't know which number.  We have been told before by the managers of those apartments that we aren't allowed to knock them, so I'm not sure what we're going to do about that.  The other one he told us about was a 20s age guy who lived with his grandma.  Elder Fotu said that the guy had actually passed away just last week, and so we should go stop by and see the grandma.  When we went to stop by, her next door neighbor rudely told us that "she just had a death in the family."  We were just like, "Yeah, that's why we're here," and we introduced ourselves and told her the situation.  She just let us know that the grandma we were going to see wasn't at home right now and we should probably just give her a couple of weeks.  Nobody looked home, so that's what we'll do.

So last Monday we were supposed to have a lesson with Drew, but he called us like an hour before and told us that somebody from work didn't come in when they were supposed to, so they called him to fill in.  It was too bad, but what happened next made it all okay.  Since our lesson didn't work out, we went to the store to see if we could meet some people.  Well, we saw Deana there!  She is the one who was super solid and was going to get baptized and then like 3 months ago she texts us and says that she saw a video of somebody "exposing Joseph Smith," so she didn't want to become a Mormon anymore.  Well, we met her at Walmart, and she pretty much told us that she wants to start coming back to church and to Book of Mormon class and stuff like that.  I was super pumped.  After we talked to her for a bit and after we left, we called Elder Hastings to tell him the news.  He was pretty excited as well, and we got to talk with him and Elder Deschamps for like 20 minutes.  It was fun to relive previous transfer's memories and to tell each other about our new ones.  We also got a hold of Drew that night and made a new plan for the next day (which also fell through, more on that later).  One more thing:  While we were at Walmart that night, some guy came up to us and said, "Where are you missionaries from?"  He was pretty nice, and obviously a member, but I had never met him before, and so we asked him who he was.  He told us his name, and we chatted for a bit.  After we went our ways, we realized who that was.  He was one of our "no contacts" on our branch roster.  In fact, we had called him just last week to invite him to our branch Thanksgiving lunch and he was super rude to us and told us never to call him again.  Well, since we met him at Walmart, I guess we aren't on such bad terms after all.

We haven't been able to get over to see Carol Anne this week.  We've called her and texted her and stopped by her house but we have only received like one text back and it was just to tell us that she was busy that night.  I really want to see her again so that we can keep teaching her and so that we can invite her to be baptized.  I think she is ready for it.  

We saw Dustin on Saturday night, and we were just giving him one last reminder to be at church on Sunday.  We were finally at a point where we were expecting him to come, and he was planning on coming.  Well, when we get there he tells us that he just planned a last minute road trip to Ohio to see his sisters and to do something else, so he would be gone for a couple of days.  That was too bad, but we were able to teach him a little bit and help him understand that it's good that he has been reading the Book of Mormon.  However, we taught him that he should choose a purpose as he reads, or choose a question to answer, and then focus his reading on accomplishing that purpose or answering that question, and he would get much more out of his reading.  It was good, and we are expecting him to be at church this Sunday.

Thanksgiving was awesome.  We were planning on going to Mama Reyes' house, and the Fort Payne Elders were going to come up as well.  Well, as we were planning in the morning, the Howes family and the Williams both called us and invited us to their Thanksgiving dinners.  Of course we had to go to all of them.  It wasn't the best idea we have ever had (eating 3 Thanksgiving meals in one day) but it was fun and it is always good to get into member's homes, build relationships with them, help them with their missionary work, and encourage and invite them to help us with ours.  They are all solid member families, and we love them.  Brother Howes is in the Branch Presidency and he actually served his mission here in Alabama and served part of it in Scottsboro.  Kinda weird/cool.  Anyway, he told us a couple of things and gave us some advice on ways we can improve our missionary efforts, so that was good.  (PS on that - we found out that Cager Howes is turning 8 and getting baptized in a couple of weeks, and the Howes want us to teach him a little bit to help him get ready, so that will be awesome.  It's also great to invite investigators to baptismal services, so we are excited for that).

Saturday was the Iron Bowl.  Man, Alabama looked terrible the whole time, and Auburn just played fantastic.  It was a pretty sad game.  Yes, we watched most of the game.  Probably shouldn't have, but we were back and forth between the Olsen's (members who invited us over to watch) and Larry and Sandra's, who invited us over to watch and help them put up their Christmas decorations.  So while were were setting up trees and lights to help them out, we peeked at the game haha.  Also, during the game like nobody wants to talk, so we figured we would spend our time with the people who actually want to talk to us.  Sister Olsen spends a lot of time going through the branch roster, visiting less actives and such, so we got some good referrals from her on Saturday as well, and we are excited to go out and see them.  It was a good Saturday.

Alright, back to the Drew situation.  We were going to have a lesson with him Monday, and that didn't work out.  We got a hold of him that night and he said that he would call us Tuesday when he got off work.  That didn't happen, either.  We texted and called him several times last week, but never saw or heard from him until last night.  Recently Drew got a girlfriend, and he was with her when we saw them.  He told us that they had gone to her church that day.  He told us how much he loved it, and how awesome their band was, and their guitarist was just jumping around and jamming the whole time and it was awesome.  I was pretty bummed about that, because that is not how church should be, but that's what people like.  Rarely do people want to do what is right, they just want to do what's comfortable and makes them feel good about themselves.  It's frustrating.  Either way, we set up an appointment to teach him tomorrow, so that should be good.

All in all, this week has been pretty good.  We have had a lot of good things happen, and we've made a lot of good memories.  I look forward to what this week has in store for us here in Scotty B.  I love y'all.  Have a good week.

Love,

Elder Beach

#RollTide 

Best kind of milk in Alabama!

Celebrating Thanksgiving.

Can you see me?

Guess we'll skip this house...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Making gingerbread houses on Thanksgiving.

Alabama countryside.

Fun week!

Hola to all of my fam, friends, neighbors, and others.  I hope that y'all are doing well.  This week has flown by.  It's been a little bit of a bummer week as far as teaching goes, but we have been having a lot of fun (within the rules, of course) and working hard.  

We were at Walmart the other day and we saw these little tabletop games for $10.  So we decided to buy one - mini billiards.  Haha the table is only like 2 feet long, but we played for about 45 minutes that night.  I strapped my camera to my head for one of our rounds, and it just so happened to be the most incredible round ever.  It should definitely be on ESPN Classics.  Well, it was just so darn fun that we decided that we needed some more of those games.  So a couple of days later we went and grabbed mini corn hole, and a couple days after that we got mini air hockey.  Since then, we have spent most of our time from 9:00 until 10:30  playing one or more of those games.  It's been a party.

Last week when we met Joe Poole, we gave him our number and he said he would call us in two or three days to set up an appointment to teach his kids.  Two days later, we were walking down the street, he drove by, pulled over, and told us that he would call/text us tomorrow.  Well, that didn't happen, so we called him.  We called both numbers that we have for him, got no answer, and left messages on both.  We never heard back from him until a couple of days after that when we finally just went over to his house and asked if we could make an appointment.  We finally got one set up for this Wednesday, so I am hopeful that that will work out and that we can get everything squared away.  I'm really excited to start teaching them, reactivating him, helping his kids learn basic doctrines and preparing them for baptism.  It should be fun!

Also a bummer this week: last week when we taught Carol Anne, we asked if we could come back during the week sometime, but she said she would be busy until Sunday.  So we made the appointment for Sunday (yesterday), which ultimately fell through.  We had invited her to church, which she seemed kind of 50/50 about coming, but she never showed.  We also invited her to the Branch's Thanksgiving lunch that was right after church on Sunday, and she didn't really give us a hard "yes" or "no" so we just hoped she would come.  Well she didn't come to either, and so we texted her to see if we could still come by that night for our appointment and she cancelled.  It was sad, but she did tell us that she had been reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and that we could come see her during the week, so we'll give her a call tomorrow or Wednesday.  I really want to invite her to be baptized.  That was the plan for our appointment yesterday, but obviously that didn't happen.  We look forward to inviting her this week.  

Elder Marshall finally met Dustin this week (Dustin has been in jail for the last couple of weeks).  We went and saw Dustin on Friday and invited him to church and to the Thanksgiving lunch.  He told us that he would be there, and that he would bring some sweet potatoes or something like that.  We were looking forward to it, but he didn't show up at church (which starts at 9:30).  Well, at about 12:45 he texts us and says, "we overslept big time."  Haha yeah, you did.  I asked him if he was still going to come, and he just told us that he "didn't want to come to church just to eat food."  I can understand that, but I was still a little bummed and disappointed.  Nobody in the branch would have cared if he showed up just for lunch.  I asked him if he would come to church next week and he said okay, so that's good.  We'll remind him several times this week and we'll probably go to his house Sunday morning and wake him up so that he doesn't sleep past noon again haha.

This week we knew that we were having the Thanksgiving lunch right after church, so we invited like everybody we knew.  We invited pretty much everyone on our potentials list, a bunch of people we met knocking doors, and we also went through the entire roster for the branch and called every single person to invite them.  At our branch council meeting before church on Sunday I told President Bennett, "We invited like 400 people to church and lunch today."  They were a tiny bit worried because obviously they had only planned for like 70 or so from the branch.  Well, not a single person that we invited showed up for church or for lunch.  I surely didn't expect a majority of the people we invited to show, but I definitely expected more than 0.  That was too bad.  It was still a great lunch, and we were able to take time to chat and build relationships with those in the branch.  While we were calling our roster to invite people, we also got a hold of a couple of less actives that I have never met before, who told us we could come visit them sometime.  That was a plus!

One more bit of good news this week that I will finish up with.  I may or may not have told y'all about Drew.  He lives downstairs in our same apartment building, and we see him pretty often as we are going in and out.  We have become good friends with him over the months, and we have come to understand that his life is pretty stressful and seems to have a lot of lows.  I'm thankful that we are able to be a little bit of a support and a pick-me-up for him whenever we see him.  We have been trying to figure out a time when we can teach him what we teach others, because he could really use the Gospel in his life right now (actually, everyone could).  But the good news is that we finally were able to make an appointment to teach him - tonight!  I'm really excited for that.

As has been said, "days are long and weeks are short."  This week was evidence of that, at least in my experience.  It was a decent week, full of fun, work, ups, and downs.  I love it.  I love all of you too, and I hope you have a great week as well.

Much love,

Elder Beach

#RollTide

Billiards anyone?

Elder Marshall at the park.

A giant mushroom we happened upon.

There is a time for work and a time for play...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

These were for sale in a gas station.  Nasty!

Happy to be in Alabama!

Good Week!

Hello to all of my fam, friends, neighbors, and others at home, school, work, missions, or wherever you may be.  I hope this letter finds you safe and sound.

This week was a pretty good week.  Obviously the work here in Scottsboro hasn't been crazy busy for the last little while.  Unfortunately that hasn't changed, but things are looking up this week heading into the next.  We have done some fun things, met some great people, and done our best to fulfill our purpose as missionaries.

A couple of weeks ago, President Bennett (Branch President) told us about a less-active family, the Pooles.  He said that the dad, Joe Poole, had called him that week and told him that all of his kids had all of a sudden shown an interest in being baptized.  Joe has like 5 kids, I think one is baptized, and 3 of the other 4 are over 8 years old and unbaptized, so that is a prime opportunity for missionary work to be done!  So last week we went by his house and met Joe, a couple of the kids, and set up an appointment to go teach them this upcoming week, so that should be awesome.  When we met with Joe, he just told us what we already knew from President Bennett, and also that teaching the kids would be like "starting from square one."  I'm not sure if the Pooles were ever really active, but that comment made me think that they probably haven't been for a long time.  It will be a great opportunity for us to learn how to teach REALLY simply, and really focus on only the most important things.  Thinking back on it, I'm so glad that I grew up in a home with parents that taught the Gospel in FHE and at other times while I was young.  I'm also grateful for Primary.  It seems like little kids in the church are just brilliant when it comes to gospel topics.  They know what is important.  Well, "starting from square one" on young kids who probably have never been to primary or had FHE is going to be challenging.  There is a quote from John Taylor in Preach My Gospel that goes something like this:  "It is true intelligence for a man to take a subject which is mysterious and great in itself, and to unfold and simplify it so that a child can understand it."  Well, I guess Elder Marshall and I are going to see just how intelligent we really are  :)  I think it will be awesome.  The one and only concern I have at this point is that this turns into another Skylar situation, where we go over and teach, invite, follow up, get people in the branch to help, and they are just too lazy to keep commitments.  I would be really sad to see that happen with the Poole kids, so I hope and pray that it doesn't.  At this point, however, we haven't taught them yet, so I have no reason to believe that that will be the case.  I'm excited to start teaching them.

This week we also got to teach a lady named Carol Anne.  We met her last Sunday night, shortly following our Mighty Hour of Prayer.  She is a super nice lady, she's an elementary school teacher, and she has a son named Devin who is a high school senior right now.  When we met her last week she mostly just talked and we mostly just listened.  At our last visit this week, however, we were able to teach her the message of the Restoration.  She loved it.  She told us that she absolutely believed that the Apostasy happened, and so she believed that it was completely possible the the Gospel was restored through Joseph Smith.  We just testified that that was true, and that the way she can find out for herself is by reading the Book of Mormon and praying.  She seemed really excited to do so.  I thought that the lesson went really well, and I was really excited because we had finally been led to one "that would receive us."  Like I said, Carol Anne loves to talk and often she will just kind of jump in and tell these random stories.  Unfortunately, towards the end of the lesson, she jumped into one of these stories, the strong Spirit that was present died down a bit, and the opportunity to invite her to be baptized kind of slipped away.  We set another appointment to teach her in a few days, and if all goes well we will invite her to baptism at that appointment.  Overall, I'm really excited for Carol Anne and she seems really excited to read the Book of Mormon and meet with us again.  It's going to be awesome.

On Friday this week we had a blitz with the Zone Leaders, Elders Krupa and Ham.  I went with Elder Ham because I had done exchanges with Elder Krupa before.  They wanted to come up to Scottsboro for a few hours to help us out with our finding efforts and such.  We basically just spent a couple of hours knocking doors and store contacting so that we could try to build a bigger teaching pool, and we seemed to have some success.  Elder Ham and I found a couple of people who seemed pretty interested that we gave pamphlets to and we'll follow up with in a few days.  Elder Krupa and Elder Marshall told us that they met several people who they were able to teach a tiny bit and set return appointments with, so that's awesome.  Elder Ham also talked to me for a while about what we can do better in our finding efforts.  In PMG it says, "Nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach."  That could not be more true.  I'm glad that the Zone Leaders came up to help us find more people to teach so that we can not only stay busy, but make effective use of every hour of every day, and do our very best to fulfill our purpose as missionaries.  It was a good evening with Elders Krupa and Ham.

Highlight of the week:  Elder Marshall and I were just walking around one night in the parking lot at the apartment to see if anyone was out we could talk to.  Well, there is a dollar store like 2 blocks from our apartment so we walked over there to see if we could find anyone out and about.  Well, turns out that dollar stores have super cheap Christmas lights, so we bought a ton of them and strung up the whole front room of the apartment with Christmas lights.  We also put up our little 3-foot Christmas tree that was sitting in the closet.  It looks pretty fantastic, and even though Christmas is still a good bit away, it's hard to believe that it's already the middle of November!  Needless to say, however, Elder Marshall and I are both pretty excited for Christmas.

Things are looking up here in the Boro.  I very much appreciate all of your love, support, prayers, and packages/letters/emails.  I know that prayers are being heard and answered, and miracles are being wrought.  I'm so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who looks our for each and every one of us each and every day.  I know that this is His work, and one way or another, it will go forward.  Whether the fruits of our labor are seen immediately or not, no effort is wasted.  I know that to be true.  

I hope y'all have a blessed week! 

Much love,

Elder Beach

#RollTide

P.S. - Funny story of the week:  We were knocking doors the other day, and a guy answered.  We introduced ourselves as "missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints," and he just said, "I'm Roman Catholic, and you can leave!"  I just smiled and said, "Okay sir, is there anything we can do for you?"  to which he replied, "Yeah, you can leave!"  Elder Marshall literally burst out laughing before the guy even had time to shut the door.  It was pretty funny.  

This was a picture in the parking lot of one of the "great and spacious buildings."​ (aka Baptist churches).  It says "Positively no large trucks."  My response to that is "are you absolute about that?"  Haha it was funny the first time...

We are ready for Christmas!

Being a Dad: Week 1

Hello to all of my fam, friends, neighbors, and others reading this email.  I hope y'all are doing well.  This week we have had some good times, some not so good times, and done some hard things, but enjoyed all of it.

Of course like I told you last week, I have a son.  His name is Elder Marshall and he is from Herriman, UT.  He's a really solid missionary, and I really like working with him already.  He is ready to work, and is really positive about everything.  That is something that is not that easy to be sometimes, especially when we are having slow days, but he is just awesome about it.  We really don't have a whole lot in common (he loves to race motorcycles, work on trucks, and he's going to work for Utah Highway Patrol after the mission), but we have been getting along great and doing our best to stay busy and work hard.  He says that he is a little bit homesick, but I haven't noticed it at all.  He's just a solid missionary who wants to go to work.  Should be a fun 12 weeks!  Little bit of an interesting story:  Elder Marshall is engaged.  Yes, to be married.  He said that he got engaged not too long ago, literally had their entire wedding planned out, and then as they got talking, both he and his girl decided to serve missions.  She is in Washington state right now on hers.  Pretty weird, but I guess if that's what they want to do, good for them.

Of course this week was transfers, so we had to go to Birmingham last Wednesday for that.  We called President Sainsbury on Tuesday to see if we could spend the night with the Sparkman Elders (because they live a little closer than we do to Birmingham, and also because Elder Graham would also be training.  Since trainers had to be early to transfer meeting, he and I could leave early and Elder Hastings and Elder Rumel could come down a bit later.)  Anyway, we called President and he didn't answer, probably because he was busy picking up the new missionaries from the airport or something.  So we texted the assistants and got permission to go to Sparkman for the night.  Like right after Elder Hastings had everything packed up and we were getting ready to leave, President Sainsbury calls us.  Elder Hastings picks up, just thinking that he was returning our call.  Well, President asks Elder Hastings to be a Zone Leader.  Haha he was not excited, but he'll do great.  (He actually ended up going down to a YSA in Birmingham to be companions with my old MTC comp Elder Deschamps.  That's cool, but a little weird because normally both Elders in the companionship are Zone Leaders, but Elder Deschamps is not going to be a Zone Leader, so Elder Hastings is just a lone Zone Leader.  Cool beans.) 

So Tuesday night we made our way over to Sparkman, went to Arby's and got cookie butter milkshakes with Sparkman, Byrd Springs (ZLs), and the sisters.  Then we went to the apartment and partied with them for like 30 minutes before we went to bed.  We still had to get up real early to get to transfers on time (like 5:00 AM), but we made it and all was well.  I picked up my son, Elder Marshall, and we headed back up to Scottsboro.

This week we have not had a ton of opportunities to teach, and we are doing our best to try and find more people to teach, but there are a few noteworthy things that we did.  Here they are:

There is a lady that I met with Elder Hastings like 2 weeks ago named Mickey who we went to go see a couple of days ago.  She was happy to see us, and we talked to her on the porch for like 5 minutes, before she tentatively asked us if we wanted to come in.  We said that our message would only take about 10 minutes, and so she let us in and we sat down.  Well, we ended up being there for quite a bit longer than 10 minutes.  We started talking to her for a bit about church and about her religious life.  We eventually moved into the Restoration, but we didn't get very far.  She loves to talk, and gets really emotional when she talks about God or her family.  We taught her a little bit from the pamphlet, but didn't get through much, and we had to get running.  We left her with a pamphlet, invited her to read and pray about it, and set a return appointment.  (The return appointment has since fallen through, but we'll go by there again soon).  We left her with a prayer, and she was just bawling by the end.  Whether or not she decides to read and pray or meet with us again, I know that Mickey is a very sweet lady and I know that she felt the Spirit that day.  I love being able to bring those feelings into people's homes.

I took Elder Marshall over to meet Elden.  Last time I was there, we invited him to read the Book of Mormon, which he hadn't.  We talked for a good bit about the Book of Mormon, why it's important, and that it will bring us closer to Christ.  After that, Elden started doing his thing and acting all weird.  I asked him "Elden, do you want to come closer to Christ?"  He just said of course, as if that was a stupid question.  I then said "Elden, I promise you that reading the Book of Mormon will do just that.  It will bring you closer to Him.  So will you read from the Book of Mormon this week?"  He just responded with a question of his own: "If you saw a prophet, would you know them to be a prophet?"  I had no idea why he asked that, but I just told him that in the Bible (which Elden loves) it says that by their fruits ye shall know them.  So I said that I would know if someone was a prophet by the things they do and say, and by the way they act.  He kind of just looked at me like I was crazy, so I just invited him to read the Book of Mormon again.  Like 4 times I invited him, and all four times he said that same thing.  "If you saw a prophet, would you know them to be a prophet?"  I told him several times that I had already answered that, and I was hoping that he would answer my question.  He finally said, "Why should I read the Book of Mormon?  There's nothing in there.  It's like a comic book."  I just promised him again that he would come closer to Christ by reading it.  He didn't believe me, but Elder Marshall invited Elden to just read a little bit of it, like one chapter.  Elden said he would.  We also invited him to church and he said probably not.  I was trying really hard not to get frustrated because he wouldn't accept or reject our invitations, he wouldn't answer our questions, and he just set aside our promises and testimony of the Book of Mormon.  I finally just told him that we had to get running, and we'd stop by in a while to see if he had read, and maybe read with him.  When we got back in the car, Elder Marshall was like, "You know when he was saying all that stuff about if we would recognize a prophet if we saw one?  I think that Elden thinks he's a prophet."  I hadn't thought about that, but it made total sense.  I think Elden might think he's a prophet, and he wants us to see and acknowledge that he is.  However, if "by their fruits ye shall know them," then I know for a fact that anyone who sets aside the Book of Mormon, says there is nothing worthwhile in it, and it's like a comic book, is far from a prophet.  I have such a strong testimony of that Book.  I know that it is the word of God, that it can and will bring souls unto Christ, and that any true prophet of God would testify of those same things.  I'm so grateful for the impact that knowledge has made on me in my life, especially as a missionary.

This Sunday was fast and testimony meeting.  I love our branch here in Scottsboro.  The members are such good people with such great testimonies.  I was thinking about last week when we went around to a bunch of people so that Elder Hastings could say goodbye.  I'm really not looking forward to that.  I love all of the people here.  I've really enjoyed serving in Scottsboro, and I hope can come to love my future areas as much as I have loved here.  

Like I said, it was fast Sunday, which meant that we had our Mighty Hour of Prayer.  It's always a good thing to do, and I'm glad that President Sainsbury decided to do that as a mission.  It's a great time to just communicate with the Lord.  Obviously we don't have a ton of people to teach, so a lot of that was directed towards help with finding more investigators.  Well guess what?  Prayer works!  We were knocking doors Sunday night, and we met a lady name Carol Anne.  She is a super nice lady, and we just sat down on her porch and talked.  Mostly she talked, and she told us like her whole life story.  We didn't get much in because she just talked and talked and talked.  Kind of like our visit with Mickey, we did get to begin the Restoration lesson.  Of course we didn't make it far, but we left her with the pamphlet, our phone number, a return appointment, and the invitation to pray about the things we discussed and what's in the pamphlet.  She kept telling us (like 5 times) how the Lord's timing is just so great in sending us to her.  I would have to agree.  We'll see how she is doing tomorrow at our return appointment, see what her thoughts are on the pamphlet, teach her the rest of it, and if all goes well, invite her to be baptized.  We'll have to do a good job of keeping her on track if that is going to happen.  Like I said, she loves to talk.  But we are excited to go back and teach her some more.  She is our first new person, in hopefully a long line of new people, that we have found to teach since our prayers in that regard.  Our Father in Heaven really answers prayers, and y'all better believe it!  :)

This week we did have a couple of not so great things happen.  1) We tried a couple of times to see Dustin, but he didn't answer.  Finally we saw his wife sitting on the porch when we went by, so we went over and talked to her for a bit.  She told us that Dustin was back in jail for the next two weeks (not sure what for exactly), and so we won't be able to teach him for a little bit.  She did say that she was going to visit him soon, and we asked her to bring him his Book of Mormon.  She said she would, so that's good.  2)  Roger officially dropped us.  Like I said, he's been ignoring us for the last couple of weeks, and we finally got to see him the other day.  We walked by his house, and he was out smoking with his mom on her porch (next door to his house).  We walked up and his mom kind of yelled at us and told us, "He's already going to a Baptist church with me."  We just said we were good friends with Roger and we just wanted to talk for a bit.  We asked how he was doing, and he just told us, "Guys, I was just looking for a church," meaning that the only reason he had been meeting with us was to "find a church."  I know that isn't completely true, but I asked him if he thought he had found it in his mom's baptist church, and he told us that he had.  He seemed kind of sad about that, and I did, too.  He was such a solid investigator hardly a month ago.  He wanted to get baptized!  I'm not sure what exactly happened, but I know that Satan just worked on him, and Roger either didn't or couldn't quite do what was necessary to fight back.  I have a feeling that his mom had a lot to do with it, but I'm not exactly sure.  I really hope that somewhere down the line some more missionaries will come by and rekindle that testimony he gained while Elder Hastings and I met with him and while he read and prayed on his own.  I know he has a testimony; he shared it with us on multiple occasions.  But for now he has chosen not to act on that testimony that he received from our Father in Heaven.

Random thought/insight before I close this letter.  Here's a quote from a General Authority (probably President Monson, but not sure):  "Obedience brings blessings.  Exact obedience brings miracles."  Elder Marshall and I were discussing obedience, and how every single thing that we are blessed with is based on our obedience to one commandment or another.  God is literally incapable of giving us blessings unless we are obedient.  D&C 130:20-21 teach this exact principle.  "20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated— 21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated."  That was quite the interesting thing that I thought about quite a bit this week.  Our blessings are based completely upon our obedience.  

Well, this week has been alright.  Turns out there is really not that much difference in training a new missionary vs. getting a new companion who has been out for a while, which I'm thankful for.  I'm glad to have Elder Marshall as a companion, and I'm glad to be here serving here in Scottsboro.  Thanks to everyone for your love, support, emails, letters, and prayers in my behalf.  I love y'all.

Elder Beach

#RollTide

P.S. - quote of the week:  "I was totally prepared to have a gay weirdo as a companion, so it's pretty nice that that didn't happen."  - Elder Marshall

Haha

I have a son!

Well, transfers are Wednesday, and here's the scoop:

- We got our transfer news last night (Monday), and the Zone Leaders told us that Elder Hastings would be leaving Scottsboro and I would not be.  That's all we got told last night. 

- Transfer news got changed, so now we only get told if we are leaving or not.  Then at transfer meeting (which is tomorrow, Wednesday) we will be told where our new area is, and who our new companion is.

- We got another call from the Zone Leaders this morning.  They told me I would be training a new missionary.  Yep.  I have been out here for all of 12 weeks, I just finished getting trained, and now I'm training.  It should be fun, and I hope I can do well.  I guess if President Sainsbury thinks I'm ready, then I am.  He's the one with the authority over this mission, and the Lord can tell him what is best for each of us missionaries.

- So, as of tomorrow, I have a son.  Cool beans.  Should be a party. :)

This week had its ups and downs.  Let's start with the downs so that I can end on a high note.

Roger, who was so solid just a few weeks ago, has all but dropped us.  We have tried him at his house, and we have seen him through the window, but he ignores our knocking.  He also ignores our texts and phone calls.  I really don't know what his deal is.  Every time we actually get to see him, he seems so solid, commits to doing things (like come to church, pray, and read the Book of Mormon) and then in between visits, nothing.  We texted and asked him if he wanted to keep meeting with us or if he just needs some time, to which we got no response.  I think we'll just give him a break for a while.  The worst thing is just when we get ignored.  If people want to drop us, at least they can just say it to our faces.  As much as that sucks, at least they are being honest and we can focus our time and attention to people who are ready to receive the message.

We met a lady last week named Anna while we were knocking some apartments.  She took a Restoration pamphlet, but was kind of skeptical.  Anyway, we set a return appointment with her, and we showed up a couple of days later for the appointment.  Like halfway through our lesson, Anna's neighbor Deborah just walks in the door and joins our conversation.  Deborah kind of missed the first bit of the Restoration, but she was still on board with what we were discussing.  She agreed to let us come to her apartment the next day and teach her the whole thing.  So the next day we went over to Deborah's and taught her the Restoration, gave her a Book of Mormon, and invited her to be baptized.  Again, she was really on board with everything we taught, and she agreed to be baptized on November 25.  We set a return appointment with her, and we were really excited.  A few days later, we went to our appointment with Deborah, but we were a little early so we stopped by Anna's real quick.  Anna told us that Deborah had told her about our lesson with her, and that she had prayed about the stuff we taught, and "the fear of God came on her."  Anna told us that Deborah said she was really scared to get baptized, and Anna basically had talked her out of it.  Anyway, we were a little confused/nervous, but we knew that we had an appointment with Deborah in like 10 minutes so we could address it then if she brought it up.  Anyway, we left Anna's, said a prayer, and went to go knock on Deborah's door.  On her doorstep was the copy of the Book of Mormon that we gave her, and a note that said, "I prayed about it, and it's not for me.  No disrespect intended."  We knocked on her door, and could hear her inside, but she didn't answer.  We took her note, but left the Book of Mormon there with a note of our own.  We just said, "We invite you to check out a scripture.  Galatians 5:22-23.  Fear doesn't come from God, but these feelings do.  We hope you keep praying, and pay attention to these feelings as you do."  I was bummed that we had found such a solid investigator, who agreed to a baptismal date, who just dropped us so fast like that.  It was sad, but I know that the things we taught her are true, and that the Book of Mormon is true.  I hope that she continues to pray about it, and read the Book of Mormon we gave her.

We had an exchange last Wednesday and Thursday with the Fort Payne Elders.  I went with Elder Layton, and we went to go see crazy Roger (the one who eats weed).  He hadn't read any of the Book of Mormon, so I just said to him, "Can I just take like 5 minutes and tell you why the Book of Mormon is so important?"  He said sure, so we taught him the Restoration again, and explained that the Book of Mormon is convincing evidence that Jesus Christ's church is on the earth today, and that He is at the head of it.  Roger told us that he was really interested in reading it now, but he still said that he wasn't much of a reader.  I hope he reads it.  After that, he said something really unexpected.  He told us that we probably shouldn't come by any more because his family was tired of us coming by.  We actually have never even met his family, except his wife, so that was really unexpected.  Roger told us that he may come to church sometime, he may read the Book of Mormon sometime, and he may call us sometime to come back if he does, but until that time comes, Roger dropped us.

So we had a couple of sad moments, but we have also had several good ones.  I'm not sure if I have told you about Tyler before.  He and his wife just got married like a month ago, and we have been over there a few times to talk to them.  We left him with a Book of Mormon when we first met them before their wedding, and he said that now that the wedding stuff is over he will start reading it.  Tyler sort of claims to be an atheist, but he seems like someone who wants to believe, he just can't yet.  He has been to some church when he was younger, but he told us about some of the stuff they did and it was super weird.  I get why he has uneasy thoughts on religion.  But he does understand the Restoration (at least he seemed like he did), and he likes that our church is focused on keeping Jesus' church as pure as possible from when He established it.  I'm glad Tyler likes that, because this is literally Jesus Christ's church, in it fullest, purest, truest form.  He told us that he would keep reading the Book of Mormon, (he started 1 Nephi this week).  We had a really good conversation with Tyler last night, and talked all about the Book of Mormon, the church, the Priesthood, the Gospel, and all kinds of stuff.  We both really like Tyler, and he is one of our many good friends here in Scottsboro.

A few nights ago we went to go see Jerry (whom I know I told you about).  Some lady named Sandy has sort of been staying at his house.  It's pretty in and out, so I'm not really sure what the deal is.  I don't know if they are friends, or are dating, or what, but every once in a while, she is just there.  So when we went to go see him, we asked if he had been reading the Book of Mormon, and he said no.  So we basically just did what Elder Layton and I did with Roger.  We taught the Restoration and helped Jerry and Sandy see why the Book of Mormon is so important.  We also gave a copy to Sandy, and we committed both of them to read and to pray about it.  It was a good lesson.

Last Friday we had the fall harvest festival thing at the church.  There were a good bit of people there, and Dustin, his wife Joan, and their kids (and some other kids that aren't theirs) came to it.  They all seemed to enjoy it except Dustin.  He thought it was fine, but I have just never seen him so out of his element.  He told us that he gets anxiety around big groups of people, and he was kind of freaking out the whole time.  He was also just nervous to be somewhere he had never been with people he didn't know.  He also felt embarrassed because he thought that others would think the only reason he came was for a free meal.  The whole time we just kept telling him it was fine, that nobody cared about that, they were just happy to see him there.  Everyone was really nice, and he started to open up after a little while.  We went back to his house the next day, Saturday, and he told us that he really did enjoy it, he just hates big groups of people.  Either way, I know his kids had fun.  They were just running around all night.  We also did a trunk or treat at the end, and between all of the candy that we had already bought, as well as all of the stuff that mom sent, we gave away A LOT of candy.  All the kids were really pumped.   Elder Hasting's' mom sent him some fake mustaches, so those were our costumes for the night.  It was fantastic.

Mom, last week in the package you sent, you included a bunch of the book "Believing Christ."  I read all of that last night.  One thing that it talked about was forming a companionship with the Savior.  When that happens, it doesn't matter where we are at, we will be perfect.  He is infinitely perfect, and anything (positive or negative) plus infinity is still infinity.  So no matter where we are at, as soon as we are one with the Savior, we are perfect.  Elder Hastings and I got into a random conversation when I said, "Obviously no one is perfect, but do you think anyone at any time has lived a perfect day?"  After talking about it, we both decided that it was impossible, even for someone like the prophet, to live one full day perfectly.  That just reiterated my testimony of how much we really need Christ in our lives.  We are commanded to be perfect even as he is.  But the ONLY way to do that is to be perfected IN HIM.  We have to have Him on our side if we are ever to achieve perfection.  And if we do our best to make that happen, He has promised us that we can.

I'm so glad I have the chance to be here in Scottsboro serving.  I'm going to miss Elder Hastings.  It's been a party.  I'm also pretty nervous about training my new son.  But I know that if the Lord needs me to, I can and I will.  I love you all.  Hope you have a great Halloween.  I appreciate all of your thoughts, prayers, letters, packages, and love.

Elder Beach

#RollTide

P.S. - Today is our dog's birthday.  Happy birthday, Hallie!

 Lollipop missionaries we made to give out at the branch "trunk or treat" for Halloween.

My desk.

Our friend made us a Halloween fire.

Our friend and his dog.

Me in an actual field of cotton.  Pretty cool, huh?

What happens when a bunch of missionaries get together at the church...

 Me and Elder Hastings helping with the branch fall festival. :)

 We're making lots of great friends in Alabama!