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!
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