Tyrrell, Baptisms, Temple

Hey everyone back home, I hope y'all are doing well.  Today is not a normal pday.  We are going to the temple here pretty soon, so I'm going to pound out every highlight of the week that I can think of in a very short amount of time.  I will probably skip a lot of stuff, but hopefully I'll get the most important stuff.

The day after I wrote last, we had transfers.  I got myself a new guy by the name of Elder Tyrrell.  He's from Colorado (although I think he lives in Nebraska now), and has spent the first and only 6 months of his mission in a tiny little town called Locust Fork, AL.  Nobody has ever heard of that place, but that's alright.  We have lots of fun, and we have had lots of good stuff happen in the last week or so.

First, we got to teach Amir again last week for the first time in a while.  If y'all remember, he was one of the Baja Angels (he's not anymore, though).  Amir didn't really grow up with any type of religious background, and in the last little while he has really been looking into Christianity.  When we first spoke, he had no idea that "Christianity" was actually busted up into different denominations, he just thought they were all the same.  Well, we put him straight on that by teaching him the Restoration.  He really enjoyed it, and he actually understands the logic behind all of it.  Namely, that Christ established His Church, that it was lost, and that is was restored.  That's really all we tell people, but Amir actually gets it haha.  (It's probably because he isn't tainted by the "foolish traditions of his father" like many here in the South are.)  When we asked him after the lesson what his thoughts were, he said, "I really need to read the Book of Mormon!"  Yep!  Everyone does!  That's all I have to say.  Anyway, Amir is really fun to teach because he just soaks it all up instead of bashing with us.  He also accepted a soft baptismal date.

Alright, here's the biggest highlight of the week (and the highlight of my time in Capitol).  Here's the backstory: This past Sunday, we were told of a 9-year-old girl in the ward who is unbaptized, and her parents want her to be baptized.  Their family is named the Cockrells, and they have been in and out of church activity for a long time.  Brother Cockrell recently received the Melchizedek Priesthood, and their family is preparing to go to the temple soon.  Morgan, the 9-year-old, can't go be sealed to them unless she is baptized (because she is over 8).  So lucky us, we literally just had a baptism placed in our lap.  Her baptism is scheduled for May 5, and so we just have to get through the lessons and make sure she understands the importance of it and all that and then she can get baptized.  Anyway, we had our first lesson with Morgan last night (Wednesday).  Morgan, Megan (her 16-year-old sister), and Sister Cockrell all came to the church and we taught with Brother Lamb (their long-time home teacher and friend).  Morgan is super smart for a 9-year-old, and she understood everything really well.  We explained to her the Restoration - how Christ's church, and the Priesthood necessary to govern it and to perform saving ordinances, is back on the earth.  When we gave the account of Joseph's First Vision, the Spirit was pretty strong, and the demeanor of everyone in the room kind of settled down, got quiet, and peaceful.  After we finished, Brother Lamb took a minute to explain the feeling that we all had.  He talked about how the Spirit works, and how we can receive a testimony for ourselves that things are true by paying attention to those feelings.  It was pretty cool.  After the lesson, we left and went to go talk to some other members who were there at the church, and we assumed that the Cockrells had left.  After about five minutes, Brother Lamb comes and grabs us.  The Cockrells were still at the church, and he had been talking with them.  After we all get back together, Brother Lamb says to us, "Well, we have some good news....Megan wants to be baptized, too!"  Whoa!  Remember, we were there to teach Morgan, and Megan was the older sister who tagged along for the lesson.  We had kind of just assumed that she was a member already the whole time.  So we just got another baptism put right into our laps.  I know that the account of the First Vision in Joseph's words, coupled with sincere testimony, invites the Spirit really strong.  And the Spirit is what softens hearts and bears witness of truth.  Megan obviously felt that during the lesson, and it lead her to also want to do what was originally just intended for her sister, Morgan - be baptized.  Awesome!  I'm really excited for their family.  They are doing really well and making the ultimate goal of the temple a priority in their lives, and I know that they will be blessed for it.  I know that we all will when we do the same.  

Alright, well I have just a couple of minutes to talk about a few other people and a few other things that might be worthy of note.  However, nothing is quite as cool as what you just read above (yet, anyway).

We went with Brother Sellers, a member, to go see Zach again this week.  Brother Sellers was going to give Zach a ride to church, and so we took him with us so they could meet each other first.  We had a good lesson with him, and we read the intro to the Book of Mormon together.  The lesson was on Saturday, and so we made sure that everything was all good for Brother Sellers to pick up Zach for church in the morning.  Well, Sunday morning came and we called Zach (as we had discussed) to wake him up for church.  We called and texted multiple times with no response, so he didn't end up coming to church.  Then on Monday we went over to Zach's house just to see what was up.  We knocked on the door, and Zach's grandma answered.  Here was our conversation:

Us: "Is Zach here?"

Grandma: "He's sleeping."

Us: "It's like 2 PM.  Can you wake him up?"

Grandma:  "Why didn't y'all pick him up yesterday like you said you was?"

Us:  "Well, was he ready to go?"

Grandma: *laughs*

Us:  "That's why.  Will you have Zach give us a call when he wakes up? Thanks."

Yeah, it was a little weird.  We haven't heard from Zach since.

Alright, here's one more quick story.  We were walking up the street one day last week (actually it was on our way to see Zach) and a lady named Carrie, who was on her porch, stopped us.  We got talking, and she apparently had met with missionaries in the past.  We taught her the Restoration again (she remembered some of it) and invited her to read and to come to church.  She has depression a little bit, and a couple other things she is struggling with, and she just told us that she would love to come to church with us because she thought it would help.  We assured her that it would.  Unfortunately, she needed a ride to church, and we couldn't find anyone that could bring her last Sunday.  However, we did find someone for this week, so we should be seeing Carrie at church.

Okay, last story.  This one deals with how illogical people are sometimes haha.  It's crazy to listen to people's arguments about stuff that we teach, especially when their arguments have no validity.  Here goes:  We were walking up the street again and met a dude named Daryl.  We started talking about what we do and what we teach, and we kind of started teaching him the Restoration.  We told him that Christ established His Church (which for some reason was confusing.  Please read the New Testament everyone).  And then we told him about the necessity of the Priesthood (again, read the New Testament.  It's in there).  The whole time he kind of just wasn't having it.  Well, we told him that Christ's church is on the earth today, led by revelation to a prophet and apostles, the same as it has always been.  And the evidence of this glorious truth is the Book of Mormon.  Well, here's where his arguments went wacky.  He literally quoted the last chapter, last verse of John, which says something to the effect that "there were many more things that Jesus did [not recorded in the New Testament], which, if they should all be written, the world itself could not contain the book which should be written."  Then he proceeds to use that as an argument that the Bible is the ONLY word of God, and that it is all we need to learn of Christ and come unto Him.  I literally looked him straight in the eye and said, "Does that make any sense?"  Apparently in his mind it did haha.  He used a scripture to present an argument that went completely contrary to that which he was trying to argue.  It made no sense.  And then I asked him this question: "If the Book of Mormon was the word of God, would you read it?"  He kind of repeated the question back to himself, thought about it, and said, "Yes, I would."  I then testified to him that it was, and offered him one more chance to accept a copy.  He declined it.  Haha, I have no idea what goes on in some people's brains.  He contradicted himself so many times.  Well, I taught, I testified, and I invited.  I guess that's all I could have done.  Maybe he'll accept the invitation when it is extended to him later in life.

Alright, I have to go.  I love all of you guys.  Sorry if this email is a little weird, I didn't read through it, I just typed and typed fast.  I want y'all to know that I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  President Nelson said "the Book of Mormon contains the full power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Period."  I know that is true.  I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet who saw God and His Son Jesus Christ.  I know that through him, the Gospel, the Church, and the Priesthood were restored to the earth.  I know that each of those things bless lives, and help others come unto Christ.  

Again, I love y'all.  Thanks for your prayers.  You're always in mine.  Have a good week!

Love, 

Elder Beach

#RollTide

Downtown Mo-Town

Hello to all of my fam and friends and everyone else who reads these emails.  I hope y'all are doing well and I hope your week was full of fun.  Here's a few of the fun things I did this week:

First off, transfers are this week, tomorrow actually.  Elder Furgeson is leaving, and I'm being made the District Leader here.  I'm not sure exactly what that entails yet, but I'm sure it won't be too difficult.  I do know that it means we are going to have a few more exchanges than normal, and I'm actually going to have to be in charge of stuff at District Meetings haha.  Other than that, I guess I'll have to learn in the future.

Last Tuesday we had an exchange with the Carter Hill Elders, and I went with Elder Quayle.  We had a pretty good exchange.  We worked in their area, and they had an appointment with a lady named Irma that they had met tracting a few days before.  She was actually home and we actually had a lesson with her (which honestly is not too common for people that we meet who tell us we can come back).  Anyway, we had a really good first lesson with her, taught her the Restoration, and invited her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and to be baptized when she knew it was true.  After we were walking out, Elder Quayle said, "That exceeded my expectations."  I definitely agreed.  Most people seem not to understand the Restoration, but I seemed like she understood it decently, which was good.  I don't know if they have talked to her since, but I know that their return appointment is this week.  We also met some other people, taught a little bit more, and overall had a good exchange.

Wednesday we went to the zoo like usual.  This week they actually had us do fun stuff (as opposed to wiping glass, which we have done like 6 times).  Since we were still finishing our exchange, Elder Cluff and Elder Furgeson went and did something while Elder Quayle and I helped at the giraffe feeding exhibit.  We got to feed the giraffes, and then fill up cups with giraffe food for like 2 hours straight because there were so many kids there who wanted to do it.  There were several schools that had zoo field trips that day.  My hands turned green by the end.  And then we finished off the exchange/zoo with our usual Taco Bell stop.  It was pretty solid.

On Wednesday we also had dinner with the Freemans.  They are a family that moved here just a couple of months ago and then they left on Friday (they were here for an Air Force assignment).  We had dinner with them to say goodbye.  When they moved here 2 months ago, we basically just became best friends for whatever reason.  They have two boys, Stanley and Mason, and a girl on the way that is due in like 3 weeks.  We kept joking that they need to stay long enough for the baby to be born in Montgomery, but Sister Freeman was not having it haha.  Anyway, we really like them and they like us and we are sad to see them move.  They are such good people and really good member missionaries, and Stanley and Mason are so funny.  But, that's Air Force life - you move a lot.

We have had a couple of other good things happen this week, but a recurring problem we have had is this: either 1) We have a really good first lesson with someone, but are never able to have a second lesson, or 2) We meet someone briefly, share a little bit with them and they seem interested, and then we are never really able to get in contact again.  This has happened with several people recently, and some of them were for people we met last week.  Mark (the roller-blader) was one of them.  We didn't get his address, only a phone number, but we have called several times this week with no response.  Barbara is also someone whom we haven't been able to have another lesson with yet.  We have been in a little bit of contact over the phone, but have yet to be back in her home.  The Bentleys also are a family that we haven't had a lesson with in a good while.  We were supposed to have a lesson with them on Saturday, but they went to Auburn "to get out of the storm."  The "storm" was just a couple hours of rain in the middle of Saturday night, and Auburn is outside the mission.  They had also promised us (Brother and Sister Bentley both) multiple times this past week that they would be at church.  They didn't come.  I think they used the storm as an excuse not to come. That was a bummer.

We did meet a guy this week named Zachary who lives just a few streets down from us.  He stopped us while we were walking by and he just started talking to us about some things that he was struggling with.  It was nothing major, but he was just a little stressed about things and he didn't know how to make these struggles he had turn into a benefit to him.  Well, we talked for a bit and we shared Ether 12:27 with him and he really liked it.  We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon, and he was really excited about it.  We stopped by again the next day and talked with him a little bit more, began teaching the Restoration, and gave him the pamphlet to read.  We're going to see him again sometime this week and finish teaching the Restoration to him.

In regards to the title of this email, I just want y'all to know that there is never a dull moment in downtown Montgomery.  It's a one-of-a-kind place haha.  This week we met some kids who were doing a dance thing that was pretty funny.  We also met a drunk guy who just walked up to us and was like, "Choose the right, Brothers!" and then he's like, "I'm a real life Mormon!  Well, more of a jack-Mormon, but still a Mormon!"  Then he pulls up his shirt and shows us this huge tattoo he has of the entire state of Alabama, and right on top of Montgomery is a CTR shield.  It was pretty weird to say the least haha.  We also met some of the family of NBA basketball player Demarcus Cousins.  I'm not sure what they were doing in Montgomery, but we got talking about Sacramento because that's (almost) where Elder Furgeson's from, and that's where Demarcus Cousins used to play.  Well, turns out some of the people we met were his sisters.  The things you seen in Montgomery... What a fun place.

This week I also put an ad for free Bibles and free copies of the Book of Mormon on Facebook Marketplace.  I had a couple of people message me and try to bash and stuff like that.  Haha, it was pretty funny.  It's so easy to just destroy people's arguments with doctrine (both from the Bible and the Book of Mormon) but it really doesn't do any good.  I pretty much just asked if they wanted a copy of either book and if they didn't then just stop messaging me please.  I also referred them to Mormon.org.  When someone's only purpose is to bash and not to learn, it's just a waste of time to try and prove anything, even if you know you are right.  I just bear testimony and refer them to mormon.org.  Can't do much more than that.

Well, despite our lack of many appointments that actually happened, we did have a good week this week.  I love being a missionary, and I love sharing my testimony, regardless of whether or not people listen.  I know that the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and that it truly blesses the lives of those individuals and families who live it.  I love sharing it with others.  I look forward to another 6 weeks of doing it in Montgomery.  Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers.  Know that you're always in mine.  Love y'all!

Love, 

Elder Beach

#RollTide

Nerf gun wars.

Elder Furgeson says good-bye to Montgomery.

Alabama tattoo with CTR shield over Montgomery!

Mark & Mark, King & Boston

Hey everyone, I hope y'all have had a good week.  We have had a pretty good week with lots of entertainment and several new people to teach.

Last Tuesday we met with Ariela.  If anyone remembers, I told y'all about her like my first week here.  She was a pretty solid investigator several months ago, but got busy with school and work and soccer tryouts, so she kind of just got dropped.  Anyway, I finally met her on Tuesday and we had our first lesson with her in a long while.  We just kind of talked about where they had left off, and we read the intro to the Book of Mormon with her because she hadn't been reading very much.  We invited her to get back into reading, and to pray about it as she does.

Tuesday we also had a lesson scheduled with Barbara, and we were going to have Sister Ladner (the Relief Society president) come with us.  Well, Sister Ladner cancelled because she wasn't feeling well.  We told Barbara that Sister Ladner wasn't going to be there, but we could still come for our lesson.  Barbara told us that she wasn't feeling well either, and so we should just try again next week.  That was a bummer, so hopefully we'll be able to have an actual lesson with her this week. 

I don't really remember which days most of this stuff happened, so I'll just tell it...

We met an 8-year-old kid named Mark.  We were just walking up the street to knock the doors of some old potentials and we saw him playing football with himself in his yard.  He just yells out to us, and throws us the football.  We ended up playing football with him for a while, and he also brought out some golf clubs that he wanted us to try.  He was a funny kid.  The best part was when he takes one of the golf clubs and just starts smacking this plant in his yard and he's like, "Man, I'm wrecking these things!"  Haha he was really funny.  We talked to his Mom also and told her about what we do as missionaries and she was a tiny bit interested so maybe we'll stop by again.  Mark definitely wanted us to.  He was SO excited when we told him that we only lived like 3 blocks away.

On that same day we passed by some people just having a smoke in their yard and they called us over to talk to them.  They were both a little tipsy, but they're like, "Y'all got a book?"  We gave them each a Restoration pamphlet and told them that if they read through it before we came back they would get a better book than that (the Book of Mormon).  They asked, "So what's the good word today?"  I just said, "That the Church of Jesus Christ is back on the earth," to which they responded, "Oh, yeah, mmhmm, yeah, that's good.  Well, it never left."  I just thought about that for a bit while we were talking.  Drunk or not, that's what some (or many) people believe.  It's so strange to me.  I think that when people believe that "Jesus Christ's Church" is on the earth, they just think of Christianity in general.  Still, that is so weird to me.  I often ask people something similar to the following: "If all these churches teach different things, how can they all be Jesus Christ's Church?"  I don't know what to think about some of the things that people believe.  The things I do know for sure are that 1) Jesus Christ established His Church, 2) The Apostasy was very real, and 3) The Restoration was also very real.  I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the one and only true Church.  I just have yet to find the best way to tell that to others in a way that they understand.  President Monson said, "Teach and testify.  There is no better combination."  I'm doing my best.

A day or two later we just had the thought to go to the Riverwalk and chalk up the Plan of Salvation, so that's what we did.  After we finished drawing, we were walking around at the Riverwalk and there was this guy who came zooming by us on some roller blades.  He then went up to the top of some stairs, rode down them on his roller blades and then did a 360 at the bottom and then just rolled on over to a bench and sat down.  It was pretty cool.  Well, we started talking to him, and his name is Mark.  We kind of spent like the next 20 minutes or so of just us talking for a little bit, and then he would go do some crazy trick on his blades, and then we would talk some more.  We shared with him like a 1 minute version of the Restoration, and then we ended up getting his number and he said we could come by and teach him more this upcoming weekend.  Awesome!

On Thursday we had Zone Conference, and Elder Klebingat of the Seventy came and spoke to us.  Man, he is so smart.  We had an opening song and prayer, and then just turned the time over to him.  He didn't have a single bit of notes, but he just talked and talked and talked.  He also quoted scriptures unlike anyone I've seen.  It seriously seemed like he has the whole quad memorized haha it was crazy.  But Zone Conference was really good, and Elder Klebingat talked a lot about being a consecrated missionary and being exactly obedient.  He was also really funny and we had lots of laughs that day.

I think on Friday (not sure exactly) we were trying some potentials in the area book and we met a bunch of kids playing street ball.  They actually called us over to play with them while we were still like 100 yards away.  Once we got up to them, one of the kids was like, "Do you play for the Boston Celtics?" and Elder Furgenson was like, "Yeah."  So then the kids started freaking out and were like, "Whoa, he plays for the Celtics!"  They asked me who I played for and I said I played for the Sacramento Kings haha.  The whole time we were playing with them they called Elder Furgeson "Boston" and they called me "King" haha.  Little kids are so dang funny.  They were always like, "Hey Boston, have you ever played against Steph Curry?  I bet he crossed you up good.  What about Lebron?  Kyrie?  Did you play with them?"  Haha we totally went along with everything they were making up so they thought we were pretty cool.  Afterwards they wanted our autographs, but we didn't have anything to sign so we just signed their arms with a pen and Elder Furgeson signed this one kid's forehead haha.  Then we got a picture with all of them, and when we were looking at the pictures later that night we saw that one of the kids was flipping off the camera.  He's like 6...  Haha these kids are crazy.

Yesterday, Sunday, we went to go try some more of the old potentials in the area book.  One of them was in an apartment complex so we knocked a few doors around the complex when she wasn't home.  We met a guy who seemed pretty interested in what we had to say, though we didn't share a whole lot because we just talked on his porch.  However, we have an appointment to come share more with him on Thursday, so that's good.  We also met this one lady who was in the area book.  She and her husband had pretty big teaching records, and they had actually been to church a couple of times last year before they got dropped.  She immediately recognized us as missionaries and told us she remembered them coming by before, and she told us that she had been to church with other missionaries a few times.  Anyway, we have another appointment to teach her this week as well.

Sister Bentley came to church on Sunday.  Brother Bentley didn't.  Like a month ago, we called them just for a daily contact or something like that, and Brother Bentley asked us to call them every day.  Since then, we haven't called them every day, but we have called them probably 5 times per week.  They have answered a total of like 4 times in the past month.  We can't really set anything up with them unless they answer the phone, because we can't just stop by since they live in Tuskegee.  It's tough, but Sister Bentley did come to church, she has been reading the Book of Mormon, and we made an appointment with her for this Saturday.

Well, that was pretty much our week.  We didn't have a whole lot of teaching, but we do have a good bit of appointments this week, so hopefully they don't all fall through.  I love y'all, and I'm thankful for your thoughts and prayers in my behalf and in behalf of those around me.  I love being a missionary.  It's so much fun to just meet people and talk with people and help people and serve people.  I'm looking forward to meeting again with the many new people we met this week, and I'm looking forward to helping them to begin their progress in this wonderful gospel.  I know that Jesus Christ is the Living Son of the Living God, and that we must come unto Him if we want to have any hope of being truly happy.  I'm thankful that I have this chance to represent Him and to help others to come closer to Him.  He really is "the way, the truth, and the life."  Like it says at the end of The Living Christ, "God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son."  I love y'all.  Have a good week!

Love, 

Elder Beach

#King

#Boston

#RollTide

Our Plan of Salvation chalk drawing.

Some funny little kids we met.  The kids here are a hoot!

General Conference Week

Hello everyone, hope y'all are doing well.  We're going to get cracking real quick here with some stuff from the week....

Obviously the highlight of the week was General Conference.  Everyone already knows about all the changes, but I'm excited for them.  I know that they are inspired of the Lord, and will benefit His children.  Seven temples!  And one in Russia!  Yeah that was pretty crazy.  If it wasn't obvious enough already, the Lord is hastening His work, and is bringing all of His blessings to all of His children.  It's a cool thing to be a part of.

It was also a really cool thing to be a part of the Solemn Assembly, and sustain our new Prophet, Apostles, and other leaders.  President M. Russell Ballard encouraged us all to write down the things that we felt as we participated in that Solemn Assembly.  I loved just watching President Nelson as it happened.  You could just see his humility showing as the weight of his new responsibility sunk in.  It was another cool thing to watch.

Here's one of my favorite things that I learned from Conference.  It comes from Elder Larry Y. Wilson in the Sunday Morning session.  He talked about how when we have problems, we often ask in prayer something similar to the following: "Please bless me," or "Please help me with this," or something of the sort.  We basically ask our Father in Heaven to fix our problems for us.  That's not necessarily a bad thing to do, but Elder Wilson suggested that we focus on making our prayers more like this: "What can I do to find a solution to this problem?" or "What can I do to fix it?"  He said that rather than ask God to fix our problems, we should ask him what we can do to fix them ourselves, and then follow the guidance of the Spirit.  We will be much more likely to have resolved problems that way.  President Nelson also spoke about how to be better at receiving personal revelation.  Those two talks combined can work wonders in our lives, and help us to be happier people.

I loved Conference.  It was such a great weekend.  I hope all of you enjoyed it as much as I did, and look forward to these new changes as much as I do.  I'm so thankful to be lead by a living prophet, who literally receives divine guidance from a loving Father in Heaven.  I hope y'all choose to obey the familiar primary song's advice and "follow the prophet."  He counseled us to read, reread, study, and conscientiously apply the teachings from this Conference in the 6 months to come.  I look forward to doing just that.

Alright, now here's some non-Conference stuff:

I told you last week how there was a guy that pulled up to us in his truck and said, "Y'all got any brochures?"  We gave him a Restoration pamphlet and set up a time to teach him.  On Saturday we went to that appointment, and here's how it went down:  We walk up to his house and there are some kids in the yard.  We ask them if Mike lives there and they say, "I don't know, but my sister is in the back and she does."  So they go and grab the sister, and so she and another guy (both like 20ish) come out from the backyard.  We ask them if Mike is there and they both are like "Who's Mike?  I don't know Mike?"  We explain the situation and that we are missionaries and Mike told us to come by.  Like 20 seconds later, the guy is like, "Oh yeah, Mike lives here, he's just not here now."  And then he calls him on the phone haha!   Anyway, we didn't end up seeing Mike that night, but at least we know he lives there.  Just FYI, this is not something that is uncommon.  People think we are cops all the time, and lie to us because of it all the time haha.  It's kinda funny and pretty ridiculous.

We went to see Barbara again this week, and she is pretty awesome.  She, unlike most people, realizes that all of the different churches around here are NOT in fact "just the same" as every other church.  She has been reading the Book of Mormon, and is eager to continue learning.  We invited her to watch General Conference, and we testified about the Restoration and how there are literal prophets and apostles on the earth today leading Christ's true Church.  I'm not actually sure if she watched it yet, but I feel pretty sure she watched at least some of it.  We have another appointment with her tomorrow, and we are bringing the Relief Society President, Sister Ladner, with us.  They should connect pretty well, and we are looking forward to seeing Barbara at church this week.

There is a guy named Royce that we have been trying to set up an appointment with for a couple of weeks.  Royce is good friends with the Branch President down in Greenville.  He has also listened to the entire Book of Mormon on audio.  We have talked to him on the phone several times, and he has just said, "You aren't going to convert me, but I'll talk with you."  Anyway, we finally got an appointment with him this week.  I'm not sure what he really believes, because at times he seems like he believes what we taught him, and at times he seems like he doesn't at all.  He claims to be non-denominational.  We basically just taught him the Restoration, and how the Book of Mormon is evidence that Jesus Christ's church is on the earth today.  Royce told us that he wholeheartedly believes the Book of Mormon, but he doesn't believe that there is a "perfect church" on the earth.  We did our best to help him connect the dots, but I don't think he has yet.  The reason he believes that there is no "perfect church" is because all people are imperfect, so there can't be a "perfect church."  I just explained to him that by his definition of "perfect church," even the church that Jesus Christ Himself established and was at the head of during his mortality was not a "perfect church."  I told him that while, obviously, people are imperfect, the church still is.  The church is perfect because the doctrines, teachings, structure, organization, and priesthood power and authority are.  Most importantly, this Church, unlike any other, is The Church of Jesus Christ.  It is His Church.  Those perfect doctrines, teachings, structures, organizations, and priesthood powers and authorities are perfect because they are His, and not the creation of man.  Anyway, we just tried to help Royce connect the dots between the Book of Mormon being true, and this being the true Church.  We also invited him to watch General Conference and he said he would.  We'll try him again sometime, because he has a lot of potential.

Last week the Assistants sent out a text to everyone in the mission to participate in the ABM Egg Hunt.  They sent out these little papers for us to print and put in some eggs and then hide them around our area.  On the paper was a little note that said something like, "In order to remember that Christ is the reason for Easter, when you find this egg, take a picture of yourself with it and post it with a favorite scripture, a testimony, a favorite Easter memory, etc., and hide the egg for someone else to find.  Include #ABMEggHunt."  The paper also had "mormon.org" on the bottom.  Anyway, we printed like 30 of these little papers and hid all of the eggs all over the place downtown.  On the night following the afternoon that we placed the eggs, we went back to see if any of them had been found.  Well, there wasn't a single one that we had placed that was in its original spot, and we saw several of them in various garbage cans.  There was not a single post with #ABMEggHunt.  In fact, I'm pretty sure if you search that, it just comes up with a bunch of missionary posts and maybe like 3 from members.  So, what started out as an idea with a bit of potential to help people remember the reason for the holiday, turned into us finding our efforts to help people remember that reason in the trash.  Haha, it was a bummer.  It seems like the rest of the mission probably had similar amounts of success.  I guess it's the effort that counts, haha.

Well, we had a good Easter and a good Conference weekend.  I'm thankful that we have living Prophets and Apostles to lead and guide Jesus Christ's church under His divine direction.  It's a great thing to share with others.  I know that Russell M. Nelson is a prophet of God, and I know that the new changes are divinely inspired and will bring more blessings to God's children.

I love y'all!  Hope you had a good Easter and a good week!  Thanks for all of your prayers and support! 

Love,

Elder Beach

#RollTide

Capitol City.

Dinner time!

Working on our area book.

ABM Easter egg hunt.

Working hard!

After a long day's work...

Downtown.

Sometimes you just have to swing...