Countdown to Christmas

Hello to everyone back home, working, on missions, at school, or wherever you may be.  I hope this email finds all well with y'all.  

It's hard to believe that next p-day is Christmas!  Crazy how fast time flies, especially as a missionary.  Tomorrow will be my 5-month mark, and by the end of this week, other Elder Beach will only have 6 months left on his mission!  I can't believe that.  Either way, I'm really excited for Christmas, really excited to Facetime home, and really excited for the people that we are working with and helping to progress in the Gospel.

Last week I told y'all quite a bit about the variety of things that we have been teaching Dustin.  I guess at the time we thought that everything we were teaching him was what he needed to hear (probably just because he was asking questions about it).  But we realized that it might just be confusing him more than it was helping him.  We also realized that our job is to help people progress towards baptism, and while all of the things we were teaching were probably helpful and informative, they weren't accomplishing that task in the best way possible.  So, we decided to start over with him.  A few days ago, we taught him the Restoration again (for maybe the 3rd time).  I'm so glad that we made the decision to do that, because he didn't remember anything from it.  However, this time he actually understood it, understood the purpose behind the Book of Mormon, and understood the necessity of the Priesthood.  We invited him to be baptized, and he accepted.  We were planning on setting a date with him, but we found out this week that you are unable to baptize people who are on probation (which he is, and likely will be for a long time).  We have not told him that yet, but we plan on it soon.  Our goal at this point is to help him grow in his desire to be baptized so much that he will do everything he can to either (1) get his probation cut short, or (2) do everything he can to prepare to be baptized and live the Gospel in every way that he can until his probation is over.  (Or both, that would be nice).  

This week I read my journal entry from the first day we met Dustin.  He is still pretty crazy, and he still smokes like a chimney and drinks tea and coffee by the gallons, but he has progressed SO much from where he was before.  I know that it is in no small part to all of the faith and prayers in his behalf from all of you.  Thank you!  

A couple of days ago we were also able to go teach Deana, and we brought the Carlsons (members from the branch) along with us.  It was the first actual lesson that I have had with Deana, so I was able to get a good idea of where she is at and what her concerns are.  She is a very emotional person, and she struggles with a lot of self doubt.  We talked about a lot of different things with her in that lesson, one of the main ones being that we are not expected to be perfect, even after baptism, but through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can be forgiven of our imperfections.  We also re-taught her the Restoration, just to review what she remembered from when she was taught back in the summer.  Elder Marshall did a great job of explaining to her that this is not just some new church.  It was not "invented" by Joseph Smith, and it is not something that has only been around since 1830.  Elder Marshall bore a powerful testimony that this is the EXACT SAME Gospel and Church that has been on the Earth since the beginning of time.  It is literally Jesus Christ's Church, the same as it has always been.  It was a great testimony, and I'm proud of him for it.  He's a great missionary, and will only get better (and it's totally because I trained him haha, just kidding).  Anyway, Deana knows that what we taught her is true, her only concerns are her fear/self-doubt, and her husband.  This is actually her 3rd marriage, and though it isn't a great one, she doesn't want a decision like baptism to pull her away from her husband because she knows what that is like already.  It's a tough situation, but we encouraged her to seek counsel from the Lord and from President Bennett, the Branch President.  She accepted that advice.  

Towards the end of our lesson, her husband came home.  I was a little worried that he would be super mad that we were there, but he was actually pretty nice.  I hadn't heard great things about his feelings towards the Church or towards religion in general, but he was nice enough to us.  I hope that that wasn't just a mask for the short time that we were there, which he quickly took off after we left.  She's just in a tough situation, but I know that with many prayers and faith from her, and from others in her behalf, everything will work out.  If she sincerely desires to be baptized, the Lord will provide a way.  It's now our job to help her gain a testimony and a desire strong enough to make that happen.  Please keep her in your prayers.  She's so ready and prepared to receive the Gospel, she just needs a lot of support and encouragement, and she needs her husband to agree with her decision.  I have faith that she will be able to be baptized soon.

Unfortunately, this week brought some bad news:  We saw both Deana and Dustin on Saturday night, and we were expecting both of them at church on Sunday - neither one showed.  We saw Dustin again Sunday night, and he told us that he had had a migraine all day, but we have yet to hear from Deana to understand her reasons for not coming.  It's hard to be a missionary when people don't keep commitments, especially when you don't know their reasons, or their reasons are beyond your control.

We also saw Drew for the first time in a couple of weeks.  We used to see him outside while we went in and out of the apartment several times a week, but lately he hasn't been out much (maybe because it's getting colder).  Anyway, we saw him and talked for a good 15 minutes or so.  Here's a side story about Drew:  every time he sees us, he judges our ties that we have on.  So whenever we see him, Elder Marshall and I have this competition to see whose tie Drew will like better that day.  The first few times, I would always get beat, but lately we have been about 50/50 on who wins.  So last time we saw Drew, yesterday, I had on this cool blue and white floral tie that I got at Unclaimed last week.  Obviously I won the competition yesterday.  But I told Drew that I had a Where's Waldo tie, and he immediately was like, "Go put it on!"  I ran upstairs right quick and switched my ties, came back down, and Drew just said, "Alright, you win.  The contest is over, sorry Elder Marshall.  He automatically wins forever now."  Haha I was dying.  Drew even took a picture of my tie haha.  I am officially the tie master now.  So I guess to end this story, I just need to give a quick shoutout to my great leader and friend, Brother Tom Buhr, who sent me the Where's Waldo tie.  Thanks a bunch!  I love it even more now, because it brought happiness to not only me, but one of my good friends, Drew.  Thanks again!

Thanks also to everyone else whose ties I have opened so far - Grandpa Gary, President Wilson, Brother Toone, and Coach Mike Paulsin.  I wear each of them proudly, and I'm especially thankful for each of your notes, advice, and words of wisdom.  I appreciate all of you and what you have done for me.  I look forward to opening the rest, adding to my tie collection (it's up to about 35 now), and hearing from others who have been an influence in my life.  I love y'all!  Thanks also to Mom for putting it all together, and spending the time and effort to make it special for me.  Thanks, Mom!  Thanks also to Mom and Grandma for all of the packages, notes, treats, and emails.  Any mail is good mail, and I love all of it.  Thanks for everything you do for me.  Love you!

This past week we also had our Follow-Up Trainers meeting, where all of the new trainees who have now been out for 6 weeks, and their trainers get together to talk about how things are going, learn some awesome things, and see how we can improve.  At one point, the trainers and the trainees split into different rooms for different things.  Elder Marshall told me afterwards that that part was basically just everyone complaining about how hard everything is and kind of whining a bit.  He said that he was really glad that he thought everything was great with us, because some of his old MTC buddies were struggling.  Elder Marshall is doing great, and we are working hard and having lots of fun together.  In my part of that meeting, with all the other trainers, we had a good training, but we finished like 20 minutes before the other guys did, so we just had story time.  Man, missions are full of hilarious stories.  We all laughed so dang hard at all of the funny stuff and funny people that we run into as missionaries.  I love those stories.  I have had a share of my own, between people like Dustin, Jerry, Elden, and other random crazies that I have had a chance to meet.  We capped off the meeting with a great lunch and some awesome trainings from President and Sister Sainsbury, so it was a great couple of hours.  I loved it.

This upcoming week, on Wednesday, we have our Zone Conference/Christmas Party.  I'm really excited for it.  We have a talent show, and we get to watch a movie (not sure which one yet).  I heard rumors that President was somehow going to let us watch the new Star Wars that came out this week.  That would be SO cool.  I'm so sad I have to wait 19 more months to see that.  If anyone wants to somehow download it and send it to me, I'd be so pumped.  Just kidding, that's not allowed :-(  Whether those rumors were true or not, it has also been said that Sister Sainsbury told him no.  Gotta listen to the wife!  Darn.  I don't know what we are watching, but I'm excited for it.

This week has been good.  We are all excited for Christmas, and I'm excited for what Scotty B (Scottsboro) has in store for us this week.  I'm so thankful this Christmas season to be doing the Lord's work and sharing the inspiring message of His Gospel.  I know that this is His work, and I love being a part of it.  Love y'all!  Merry Christmas!

Elder Beach

#RollTide

#LightTheWorld

#JingleBells

#HoHoHo

#MerryChristmas

#TisTheSeason

#JoyToTheWorld

#TooManyHashtags

Looks like all we eat/drink is eggs and milk!  (And my bag of insulin takes up quite a bit of space as well...)

Lighting the world in Alabama!

My tie wins, according to Drew!

Transfer Week!

Howdy to all of my family, friends, neighbors, and ward members at home, on missions, at school, work, or wherever you may be.  I hope this email finds all well with y'all.

This was a short week because of the temple trip last Wednesday, so there may not be a whole ton to report on.  Either way, here's how this week went down:

We have been seriously teaching Dustin this week.  In the past when we go over to his house, he is so distracted with all of the kids running around and yelling and stuff like that, that we usually just check on his reading, invite him to things, and help him out with whatever he needs.  We would discuss Gospel principles, but that often didn't last more than a few minutes before he gets distracted by things or something like that.  He loves to talk, and we like to meet with him, he just has trouble staying on one topic at a time.  However, this week we have had 2 or 3 really good lessons with him where we were able to discuss repentance and baptism a lot.  

Dustin has also been discussing things with his wife Joan after we leave and between our visits, so that's a great thing.  In preparation for our discussion on Friday, we had given him the assignment to read 2 Nephi 31.  When we got there he hadn't read, so we started reading it with him.  We only got through like 1 verse, and somehow just ended up talking about baptism without even getting to that part of the chapter.  Dustin doesn't quite understand it yet because he pretty much thinks that baptism=salvation, and that after you're baptized you can't make any mistakes whatsoever or you go to Hell.  In my mind that just makes no sense, because it is literally impossible to be perfect, even after we have covenanted to be exactly obedient.  We did our best to help him realize that repentance is available even after baptism, and that it is available to all, no matter what we may have done.  We also got on the topic of baptisms for the dead, which he didn't fully understand (mostly because he still thinks baptism=salvation, and how can you "be saved" for someone else if they were a bad person in this life?).  We helped him to realize that we are not making that decision for them.  People in the Spirit world are basically being taught by missionaries, and they still have the chance to accept or reject whatever is taught.  The only thing we are doing when we are baptized for them, is just that - being baptized for them.  We are not teaching, developing faith, or repenting for them.  We are just giving them the opportunity to enter into the covenants of baptism, because when you don't have a body, you are unable to perform that ordinance.  I'm pretty sure he picked up on that, but we might have to readdress that topic briefly.  The most important thing we were able to teach him was about the Atonement, and that everyone is always able to repent.  We also talked about what it really means to repent, and how repentance works.  (Repentance is NOT just saying 10 "Hail Mary's" and 8 "Our Fathers.")  Repentance is about having that change of heart that is talked about in Alma 5.  We have had some great discussions with him recently.

We also invited him to Cager Howes' baptism.  He is one of the kids in the branch, and Dustin's son is friends with him.  The baptism was Sunday night, and Dustin was fairly certain that he would be able to make it.  We were sort of expecting him at church, and really expecting him at Cager's baptism.  However, when I texted him Sunday morning, he had told us that his one of his really good friend's mom had passed away that morning, and so he said that "all bets were off" (meaning he wouldn't be at church or at the baptism) because he needed to get some things done to help out with all of that.  I was pretty sad, not necessarily because he wouldn't be at church or at the baptism, but because he was just in a tough spot, feeling sad, and there wasn't much I could do to help him.  I guess it was a good thing that we taught him about baptisms for the dead just 2 days before  :)  We are going to just keep teaching him and helping him, and I'm certain that someday he will come around and see that baptism is essential, and you don't have to be perfect to be baptized, nor do you have to be perfect afterwards.  He is doing so much better than he was when I first met him during my first transfer here, and I know that it is thanks to many prayers in his behalf.  Please keep him and his family there.  He, Elder Marshall and I, and our Father in Heaven all appreciate it.  Thanks!

So unfortunately Dustin was unable to attend Cager's baptism.  We had invited several other people, but we weren't really expecting them to show.  However, just a few minutes before we started the service, Deana walked in!  She hadn't been to church in the morning, and she hadn't replied to any of our texts over the last couple of days, including our invitation to the baptism.  But she walked in and I was just so happy.  She was also really glad to be there.  I think I told you her story already, but several months ago when Elder Peterson and Elder Hastings were teaching her, she was so solid and was preparing to be baptized herself.  However, soon after I got here she ran into some anti and dropped us.  A couple weeks ago we met her at Walmart and she started coming to church again.  She told us at Cager's baptism that she and her husband "had some words" about her attendance at the service.  For whatever reason, he is super anti, and he may have been the cause for her dropping us a few months ago.  I already knew that he was anti, but I guess it's a really bad situation.  I'm pretty sure he's not anti-Mormon, just anti-religion or anti-God in general.  I feel bad for her, because she really knows that what she has learned from the missionaries and from the Book of Mormon is true, and she wants to do the right thing, it's just that her husband hates it.  Please keep her in your prayers as well.  I hope that someday soon his heart will be softened enough to let her righteously exercise her own agency in the best way that she knows how.

This month, as all of you know, is the month that we have been asked to light the world.  It's not a hard thing to do, (especially when your mom sends you tons and tons of stuff to help you out with it - thanks Mom!) so I would ask each of you to commit, or recommit, to lighting the world this Christmas season.  I just have one experience to share about lighting the world, and I have two reasons for doing so. 1) It was special to me, and 2) It goes to show that it is really simple to participate in this initiative.  Here's how it went: day 7 was "suffer the little children to come unto me."  Mom sent a couple of toys (hot wheels cars and bouncy balls) to give to some little kids who might want/need them.  I immediately thought of the Kirks.  They are some less-active recent converts that I have told y'all about before.  They haven't been to church recently, and we haven't been able to see them at all this transfer because of their schedules and other circumstances.  Anyway, they have two kids - Aiden is 8, and Natalie is 4.  I wrote the parents a little note, and was planning to just drop the stuff in their mailbox.  However, when we drove by their house, the door was open so we parked and went to go say hi.  Right as we were walking up the steps, the mom walked out the front door and we nearly scared her to death, haha.  The dad wasn't home, so we just talked for a little bit on the porch.  I'm not exactly sure what their family situation is right now, but I know it's not the best.  She told us that everything was going alright though, and it seemed to be that way.  Natalie was so excited to see "the Letters" (that's what she calls the "Elders") and both she and Aiden were so happy to get a couple of little cars and bouncy balls from us.  Their mom was really appreciative, and I could just see Aiden and Natalie squealing and having so much fun with their new little toys.  It made my day, and it made theirs too.  It was a great way to finish up the night.  I have been having fun "lighting the world," and I hope that y'all can take some time each day to do it as well.  You never know how much of an impact that one little act of service will have in the life of the one you serve - and your own!  It's awesome.

Well, I hope y'all are having a great Christmas season.  I hope it's snowing lots at home.  We did get a tiny bit of snow for about an hour this week, but none of it stuck.  I was told that almost every other area in the mission got at least an inch or two.  Bummer, but that's alright.  We don't need any crazy Southern drivers out in the snow and ice haha.  I look forward to seeing everyone on Christmas.  Love y'all!

Elder Beach

#RollTide

#LightTheWorld

Dustin, Elder Marshall and me.

Hello from my corner of the world.

Just in case you were wondering...

Filling up the baptismal font for Cager's baptism.

Elder Marshall and me.

Temple trip!

Elder Marshall and me at the temple.

An Alabama Christmas!

Temple Week!

Hello to all of my family, all my good buds, my neighbors, and everyone else as well.  I hope this letter finds you well.  We are going to the temple today in Birmingham which will take up pretty much all of our P-day (which is okay, it's the temple), so I might not write a whole lot because we don't have much time.

Last week I told y'all that we were going to teach Drew.  We actually did this time, so that was super awesome!  We had planned to teach him the Restoration, but we didn't get through a lot of it.  Actually, Drew talked for most of the time that we spent with him, and he talked about all kinds of things (mostly life stories).  He's had a tough go, but things are finally shaping up for him after years of depression and just all-around negativity.  He is a happy guy, and I like to think that it was at least partly thanks to our friendship with him.  We love Drew and he loves us.  Anyway, we did get to teach him a little bit, and we focused a lot on just helping him understand better that God is in fact our loving Heavenly Father, and that the Savior and His Atonement really can make everything right.  We also began teaching the Restoration, and explained dispensations, prophets, the authority/priesthood, and we finished at the Savior's earthly ministry.  We helped him realize that Jesus Christ did establish His Church (something that almost nobody agrees with.  I will never understand why.  What was Jesus doing by teaching His doctrines, calling leadership positions like Apostles and Seventies, and sending them out as missionaries and instructing them to teach and baptize, if not establishing His Church?)  Anyway, Drew actually understood that, unlike most, but that is about as far into the lesson as we got before we had to leave to Huntsville for interviews with President Sainsbury.  Drew is one of our best friends out here in Scotty B, and I'm really excited to keep teaching him.  During the whole lesson/conversation, he just kept saying how happy everything we said was making him feel and how much he loved it.  We helped him realize that it was the Holy Ghost, and that the Holy Ghost testifies of truth.  We also let him know that "the best is yet to come," and that everything we taught him that day was just a tiny part in comparison to all that we teach.  That just got him excited to meet with us again, and we look forward to that day.

We were expecting Dustin at church two Sundays ago, but he decided to go to Ohio.  He told us that he would be there for about 2-3 days, so we were expecting him at church this past Sunday.  We went by his house on Friday or Saturday to re-invite him, but nobody was home and his truck was gone.  So we texted him early Sunday morning and just said, "Hope to see y'all at church" and he responds and says, "We're still in Ohio."  His 2-day trip turned into an 8-day trip, so he didn't come to church this Sunday either.  We did go see him last night really quick, and gave him the assignment to read 2 Nephi 31.  We made an appointment with him for Thursday, and we will talk about that chapter with him then.  It should be pretty good.

This past Sunday, Deana came to church!  We were super pumped to see her there, and there were several members in the branch who were super nice to her and made good friends with her, so that was awesome.  Unfortunately, she had to leave after Sacrament meeting, so we only got to talk with her for a tiny bit, but she told us that she loved it and that is was a huge blessing.  Several months ago, before I was here and before she ran into anti material, Deana was a great investigator and was getting ready to be baptized.  I hope that her coming to church and our future meetings with her will rekindle that testimony that she had gained and help her again have a desire to be baptized.  We look forward to it.

This week we also had an exchange with Elder Gibbons and Elder Layton in Fort Payne.  It was fun to go to their area, see some new things, meet some new people, and spend some time with a couple of our good missionary friends.  One cool thing about the exchange is that Elder Gibbons and I got to go to Georgia.  Fort Payne is the only area in the mission that has any part of Georgia in it, so I got to be a border hopper that day, which was pretty awesome.  We actually ended up finishing our exchange in Scottsboro for a couple of reasons.  One is that we all had a multi-district meeting in Huntsville the next morning and Scottsboro is about 40 minutes closer to Huntsville than Fort Payne is.  Also, there was a new family moving into the Scottsboro branch and so all four of us went over there to help them unload the truck.  Their last name is Bible haha, and they were super nice people.  They actually don't live in Scottsboro, they live in Pisgah, which is like the middle of nowhere.  But the Bibles invited us out to their house for a barbecue sometime, and they told us that we could go up there for p-day and do some fishing because they have a giant pond in their backyard.  I don't really care much for fishing (besides the eating part) but Elder Marshall was all over it, so we might go up there for one of these p-days.

This week we went to go see Mickey (I'm pretty sure I told you a bit about her before).  Elder Hastings and I met her tracting during his last week here, and then Elder Marshall and I had the first sit-down lesson with her on his first day in the Boro.  Mickey is a lady who is really tender-hearted and emotional about a lot of things.  She is also kind of depressed and just has a lot of negativity in her life.  Anyway, we talked with her about the Restoration pamphlet that we had left with her a few weeks ago, and we taught her about the Book of Mormon and gave her a copy.  We left her with 2 Nephi 2, which talks about there needing to be opposition in all things, because she was just sad that bad things always happened to good people.  We talked with her for a bit, introduced the Book of Mormon, and invited her to read.  When we were about to get going, Elder Marshall told her about how we are able to give people blessings, and asked her if she would like one.  She accepted and asked me to do it.  I was so grateful for the chance I had to give Mickey a blessing and ask our Father in Heaven to help her with her struggles and give her strength to endure them.  I remember after I received my Patriarchal Blessing, Brother Jensen said, "You may be all happy and feeling the Spirit, but I am just exhausted."  That's exactly how I felt after I gave Mickey a blessing.  But I also just felt fantastic knowing that we helped her out in the best way that we could.  After that, we left her house while the Spirit was still strong like we are supposed to, and Elder Marshall and I just talked in the car for a bit while we were driving to our next place.  We both agreed on one thing: "Visits like that are what make a mission worth it."  We love those kind of visits. :)

All in all, this has been a good week.  We have had some fun, worked hard, learned lots, and enjoyed all of it.  I love being a missionary.  I love all of you, and appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers.  I hope y'all have a great Christmas season and remember to Light the World!  Love you!

Elder Beach

#RollTide

#LightTheWorld

At the Birmingham temple.

On exchanges.

Fort Payne is the birthplace of the musical group "Alabama". 

Border hopping.