As I look back over the week, I feel like there's not a whole lot that's noteworthy to report, so I'll probably just keep this letter short and sweet. Here goes...
On Wednesday we went to the zoo like usual and volunteered for a couple of hours. Whenever they don't have anything for us to do, they just have us rake leaves, because there's always that to do. One of the workers there took us over to an empty pen where kangaroos usually stay. She asked us to rake all the leaves in there, and she says, "Yeah, this is probably about a 3-day project." We only had like 25 minutes until we had to go, but we finished the whole thing. When we have talked to the zoo staff before, it has seemed to us that we do more work in the two hours that we are there every Wednesday than they do in the rest of the week haha. I don't think a whole lot of people go there, and I don't think there's a whole ton of work to do, but we are always happy to help.
On Wednesday we also had interviews with President Sainsbury. Ours were supposed to be at 3, and the Carter Hill Elders had theirs at 3:30, so we took them with us. We got there at about 2:50, and President was a little behind (which was to be expected), however he ended up getting WAY behind when we got there. The STLs were right ahead of us, and they took forever. I honestly have no idea what they even talk about in interviews. I think the longest interview I've had with President was like 12 minutes, just because everything is going well and I don't have any problems and there's just not much to talk about. Anyway, the Sisters (there was one in there when we arrived, and 2 more that still had to go before us) ended up taking like 2 hours, and we didn't get into interviews until about 4:50. Then me, Elder Furgeson, Elder Rumel and Elder Robins all finished before 5:30, and we all left to go to our dinner appointments. It was quite the waste of time. If I had known that it was going to take 2 hours instead of 30 minutes like we thought, we would have left and come back later. However, it was good to sit and chat for a while with some other missionaries in the zone who also showed up. It was also good to visit with President Sainsbury for a few minutes. I love him. I'm glad he's going to be here for basically my whole mission. I think he goes home like 2 weeks before me, so it will be weird breaking in the new Mission President for 2 weeks and then leaving haha.
Here's a funny story: On Wednesday night we went downtown to the State Capitol building real quick to see if there was anyone to talk to. When we pulled up, Elder Furgeson was like, "Oh, there's prayer guy." There was a guy there on the steps of the Capitol, whom I guess comes there pretty often and prays over the building or something. Elder Furgeson had met him before. We talked to him for a while and he gave us these little pamphlet things from his church that are called "The Road to Heaven". It's basically one of those things that almost all other churches have that shows you how to "get saved." They're pretty weird. Anyway, after talking to this guy for a while, he asked us to say a prayer with him. Then he grabs our hands and asks Elder Furgeson to say a prayer. Now, I don't know how many of y'all have heard someone pray while you were praying, but it's a pretty common thing down here. Elder Furgeson starts praying, and this guy just starts praying right over top of him and he was just saying the wackiest stuff, saying "Lord" like every other word, and it was just an interesting prayer. I was dying laughing and felt really bad and I really hoped that this guy didn't open his eyes and see me laughing during his prayer. Well, Elder Furgeson finishes his prayer and this guy just keeps going for like another 5 minutes and then finishes his. It was an interesting experience. Right before we left, I think we invited him to read the Book of Mormon (I guess they gave him one when they met him the first time). Then we called it a night.
On Thursday we met with Franchezaka, one of the Baja Angels. Our lesson didn't go very well, unfortunately. We learned from her that she grew up with a Christian background, and so we thought she had a pretty solid understanding of who Jesus is and what He did and all that jazz. We sort of taught the Restoration and that just kind of confused her, and then she just started talking about what she believed. When she did that, it showed us that we really had no idea what she believed like we thought we did. She kept talking and talking, and just kept getting into weirder and weirder things, and then I think she eventually just confused herself and all three of us started to realize that she doesn't really know what she believes. I don't think there is anything really solid that she holds onto. It didn't really go very well until the end, where it got better. The whole time she was talking I just kind of felt bad for her and I was just thinking, "I just wish you knew what I knew." Then, based on that, I asked her, "Tell me what you think about Jesus Christ." She just told us that she knew He was really important and really influential and He taught good things, but she didn't believe in Him as the Messiah. I then just took the chance to bear my testimony and just say something to the effect of this: "Franchezaka, I want you to know that I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer. It is only through Him that we can truly be happy in this life and in the life to come. I know that if you want to know that this is true for yourself, you can. I promise you that Jesus is the Savior, and you can come to know that, too." Like I said, our lesson was kind of all over the place, but I know that any lesson will go better when you just bear a simple testimony. Doing that will always invite the Spirit. We didn't start off well, but I think we ended on a good note.
On Friday we went out to Tuskegee. We usually go on Saturday, but we had a dinner appointment out there so we went on Friday. There were a couple of referrals that we saw and gave copies of the Bible and Book of Mormon to. We also went through some of our ward roster to meet some of the members in Tuskegee. There are only like 3 members who come to church from Tuskegee, which means we have an entire branch worth of less-actives out there. We met a few of them and told them that they are missed at church, and we just shared an uplifting message and encouraged them. I think most members in Tuskegee don't come to church because they don't have a car, can't afford gas for their car, are lazy, or are too old to leave their house. That's what it seems like anyway. I know that's probably not the case, because just a few short years ago when their was a branch in Tuskegee, I know that only like 6 people came. Most people that we talked to were pretty old, so maybe that's the reason - they just don't leave their houses ever. Anyway, most of them shared their testimonies with us and we just encouraged them, let them know they were loved, and invited them to do everything they can to keep the Spirit in their lives by reading the scriptures and praying daily. After our visits with people, our meal appointment fell through, so we just headed home. On the way home the Villalobos texted us and they were like, "dinner in thirty minutes" and we were just like, "Wow that was inspired!" because our dinner had just fallen through. So then we went and had dinner with them and it was really good. Highlight of the day, however, was when we were still back in Tuskegee. This is going to sound really stupid because it is, but it was funny when it happened. We saw this random sign in the middle of an empty dirt lot that said "HOT FISH." Haha I don't know why but that was really funny, so we stopped to take pictures of it. Highlight of the week probably.
Saturday kind of sucked haha. Just so y'all know, the White Handbook says, "Saturdays are an excellent time for proselyting because most families are at home." Well, we planned out our entire day that morning and who we would stop by and where we would go and all that fun stuff. Then we went and did it. There was a street that we had knocked on Thursday where a few people said we could try again on Saturday, so that's where we went, and we also had planned to finish knocking that street. We did, and guess how many people answered, both from stop bys and tracting? Zero! Well, we had a few more people to see, so we tried them and no one answered there either. We finished our entire day's plans hours before we had planned to, so we just decided to redo our entire day and try them all again. Well guess what? The exact same thing happened! (except for this one guy that answered and told us he wasn't interested). So that was our day. Even our dinner appointment fell through again haha, that's how lovely it was.
On Sunday, Sister Bentley came late to church, so she missed Sacrament Meeting. She did attend most of Gospel Principles and all of Relief Society, so that was good. There was also another cool thing that happened on Sunday. Back story: A few weeks ago, a couple in the ward, the Rachids, came up to us and Sister Rachid was like, "Hi. I'm not a member, but I'm looking into changing that soon." Well, the Rachids hadn't been to church since then until yesterday, and they never answered their phone over the last few weeks. Anyway, they walk in on Sunday and were like, "Sorry, we aren't ignoring you!" And so we set up a lesson/dinner appointment with them for this Thursday so we can start teaching her. I look forward to it. Sister Duncan was not at church, so we couldn't ask her about her African friend. Hopefully all is going well.
Well, after telling y'all that we did nothing I sure wrote a lot haha. This week should be better. We have appointments scheduled with Franchezaka, Amir, Sister Bentley, Dawn and David, and the Rachids. I look forward to meeting with and teaching all of them.
I love all of you guys. Thanks for everything you do, and thanks especially for your prayers. We couldn't do this without them! Love you!
Elder Beach
#RollTide
Highlight of the week!
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