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
No comments:
Post a Comment