Last Sunday when we were at church, there was a guy named Patrick who just walked in off the streets (which happens fairly regularly). Several of the members recognized him, and we came to learn that he has been walking in to church every couple months or so for like the last 2 years. He has shown up drunk before, asking for money, etc., and so some people were less than thrilled to see him. However, this time he was pretty normal and there was one member who kind of took Patrick under his wing and they stayed together throughout all of church. We talked to Patrick and got his info, and made an appointment to teach him on Saturday. We went over and taught him the Restoration, gave him a Book of Mormon, and invited him to read and to pray and to join us again at church. He told us that he would.
He did come to church again yesterday, and actually participated in Gospel Principles, and seemed to actually enjoy being there at church. Some members gave him a ride home after, and everyone was pretty nice to him at church. We still feel like his main motivation in coming to church is to get money, but as long as we can slip some gospel stuff in there - teach him and help him to feel the spirit - that's alright with me. I'm hoping that he can get helped out financially a little bit, but ultimately we want for him what we want for anyone. To help them out spiritually by helping them come unto Christ. We have another appointment with Patrick this week, so we'll see how it goes from here.
The Cockrells came to church Sunday! And Sister Cockrell even bore her testimony! It was awesome! We also talked to them and to Brother Lamb a lot last week about getting all of the logistical things figured out for the kids' baptisms (like when lessons need to happen so that we can cover everything, and like giving them enough time to fully understand the importance of what they are doing, and all that jazz). Morgan and Megan were originally going to be baptized on May 5, but we decided that that was going to be a little bit too quick. Their baptism is now set for this Saturday, the 12th, and they will definitely be ready for it. We had lessons with them last Wednesday, as well as yesterday. They are both just soaking it all up, and are so much fun to teach. We are going to finish the last lesson with them this Wednesday, have their baptism interview on Friday, and the baptism Saturday. Everyone is super excited. We were talking in Elder's Quorum about their family (as part of our first Sunday discussion thing). We just told everyone that their baptisms were this week and we invited everyone out to support them and all that. One of the members who has really been involved with the Cockrells for the last several years spoke up and just talked about how awesome it was that Morgan and Megan were getting baptized. He spoke briefly about the difficulties their family has had, and the long road that it has been to get to this point. It was pretty amazing, and it made me even more happy and more excited for them.
I told y'all last week about Brenda and Tiffany whom we met tracting. We taught them the Restoration (twice) and they seemed pretty excited to learn more. Then a couple of days ago we went to go stop by. As we pulled up in the car, their door was open and their lights were on. As we got out of the car and walked up their sidewalk, the door shut. We sat on their porch for a good couple of minutes knocking and ringing the doorbell - nothing. We might stop by one more time, but in a situation like that we pretty much know they don't want us back. I really just wish people would tell us why they don't want to talk to us - no matter how lame the excuse is. I would way rather have that than just a shut door and no answer. *Nacho Libre voice* "But you know, whatever." Everyone has their agency.
Saturday last week was pretty bomb. The zoo had their annual service day, where a bunch of people just show up and do all the work that their understaffed employment force didn't do during the year. We all just got put into groups and went to work on stuff. There were like 30 people from the Air Force there volunteering, and we were in their group. They all just were given chainsaws, shears, and trimmers with which to destroy some hedges that hadn't been trimmed in years. Elder Tyrell and I had the job of picking up all of their clippings. So we spent like 2.5 hours just driving the trailer around, picking up hedge after hedge after hedge, driving the trailer over to the dumping spot, dumping it all, and then doing it over and over again. It was definitely the most manual labor that I have done in my many hours of zoo service haha. But that's alright, because it got our appetites up for the highlight of the week...
Crawfish boil! Last week the Wright family invited us out to a HUGE crawfish boil near their house. Sources say the amount of crawfish at this event were upwards of 3 tons. Yeah, that's over 6 thousand pounds of crawfish. It was pretty sweet. Elder Tyrell and I both made the goal that we would eat 150 each. In all honesty, we didn't keep track. However, I am not being unrealistic in telling you that the estimated final count was actually between 250-300 each. We ate A LOT. Every family/group that was there kind of had their own pop up tent that they sat at and ate. However, the cool thing was that there were also these tables that they would just dump buckets full of crawfish and people would just stand around the tables and then go to town. So what we did for a while was stand around those tables and eat and talk to people. Definitely the most creative contacting I've ever done haha. Making solid contacts was a little difficult because there were a lot of drunk people, but it was still good to talk to folks about the gospel as we sat there and pounded crawfish. Definitely the highlight of the week!
This week we also got a referral from some missionaries in Georgia for a lady who moved into our area recently. We called them to get a little bit more information from them about this lady. Her name is Phyllis, and she seems to be a pretty solid investigator. They told us that she LOVES missionaries, and that she has been taught several lessons, has been to church a couple of times, and is thinking about baptism. She does have a few Word of Wisdom issues, but if someone's testimony is in the right place, those things are far from impossible to overcome. She sound pretty awesome, right? Well here's the issue - she lives in Tuskegee, which is literally 45 minutes away. Mission leadership out here has really been cracking down on miles. In all honesty, if Phyllis turns out to be that solid, and with that much potential, I'm going to pretty much ignore all the miles we might rack up to visit with her. We'll see how it goes after our first visit or two. I know we are going to be out that way on the 19th, so that might be the first time we meet her in person. It's real tough to teach people that are so far away, so I'm not sure how it will all work out yet, but we'll see in the coming weeks. I'm excited to meet her.
Well, that was pretty much our week. I'm looking forward to skyping home this weekend! Can't believe it's been 5 months since we did it last time. Days are long and weeks are short I guess (and months are shorter? I dunno). Anyway, I love you guys, and I'm so thankful for your love, prayers, notes, and support. Love y'all
Elder Beach
#RollTide
#300Crawfish
Nothing like a good Southern crawfish boil!
Happy Star Wars Day and Cinco de Mayo this week!
My week in Alabama!
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