Exchange, Interviews, and Such

Hey there everyone who reads these emails every week.  It's good to know that some of y'all have stuck with me for nearly a year so far.  Hard to believe it's been that long.  Also hard to believe that in just a week or so, I'll be the only Elder Beach in the fam left.  Weird thing, time.  Anyway, here are some of my adventures from this week:

We started off our week up in Montgomery (that's where we emailed from last Monday).  We then began our exchange on Monday night, went through Tuesday, and then we had interviews with President Sainsbury on Wednesday, after which we went back to Greenville.  It was kind of dramatic trying to get permission to do a 36 hour exchange, and there was a bit of misunderstanding, and there's lots of details that I could rant about (more on that later maybe) but we'll leave it at that.  It was fun to be in my old area with my old companion for a day and a half.  It was a little odd to be in my old house, but not have it be my house.  Elder Tyrrell and I went hard, hit those bikes, met lots of people, and had fun.  We also hit the jackpot in that our dinner appointment on Tuesday cancelled, and then we talked the Villalobos into having us over.  All 5 of us (Capitol is a trio currently) had dinner over there and that was lots of fun.  They are one of my favorite families.

Interviews were interesting.  I told President about some of our current predicaments (mostly the fact that he told us we need to visit every single member on the roster, but that is quite literally impossible given the miles we have).  I also cleared up any misunderstandings about our reasoning behind doing a 36 hour exchange instead of 24.  He gave a couple of suggestions on how we can do things, but not anything we hadn't thought of before, so we'll see how it goes.  We have already been doing pretty good on miles, I just wish that they (meaning our vehicle coordinator) would recognize how many miles we have already cut out instead of just telling us to do better.  (For example, about 6ish months ago, the car in this area was averaging upwards of 4000 miles per month.  That's a lot, I know.  However, currently it is the 25th, and our monthly miles are at about 1500.  That is a BIG difference, and we have been trying pretty hard.  That being said, our monthly allotment is 1300, so I am sure we will get a call at the end of the month telling us to try harder.)  Anyway, interviews were good and I learned a couple of things that I can focus on to help out with the work down here.  It was a good couple of days in Montgomery.

This week we got to meet with a guy named Ray.  He is the boyfriend of a member in the branch who has been coming to church with her for the last 2 months or so.  He watched the President and Sister Nelson youth devotional, and also has started to read the Book of Mormon on his own.  We went to go talk to him about all of that stuff.  We went over to his house, and he collects lots of things.  His whole house is full of samurai swords and armor and Star Wars memorabilia, and Lord of the Rings stuff, and just all kinds of cool things.  We spent like an hour just having a tour of all of his stuff haha.  Then we talked to him about church and the Book of Mormon.  He basically told us that he just wanted to read on his own, and go to church and just soak it all in.  He didn't really want to have us teach him or anything, but he told us that he would come to us first if he had any questions.  He then told us something that I wish more people would understand.  He said in effect, "I figured that if I read the Book of Mormon and it's not true, I wouldn't have lost anything."  That is the phrase that I wish every single person (member and non-member) would get into their head.  Just read the Book!  If it's true, you have literally found the one thing that will allow you to unlock every blessing available.  If it's not true, well then you have spent some time reading a great book that teaches you more about the Savior.  What a bummer that would be, right?  Anyway, I'm glad that R is reading it, and I hope and pray that more people do.

We also met this week with a guy named David.  I met him once before a few weeks ago.  He is a member who was baptized about 2-3 years ago.  Kind of an older guy, so he fit right in with the members, and was good friends with many of them.  Then about 8 or so months ago, he had a falling out with one of the members and hasn't been to church since.  And in all honesty, I have been told the story from the perspective of Elder Kapcsos, the member who David now hates, and David himself.  It sounds to me like David is really blowing a tiny little incident out of proportion.  When we meet with him he just tells us about how he misses going to church, he always asks us how specific members are doing, and I can tell he just wants to be there.  However, he refuses to go because, in his mind, he hates one of the members, and he thinks that they hate him.  I have talked before about how I just don't understand less-actives.  I still don't.  All of them have their reasons for not going to church, and I haven't heard a good excuse yet.  It's just odd.  I wish we could find a way to resolve the issue of so few people coming to church.  In each branch/ward I have been in, the active to less-active ratio is about 1:5.  Any suggestions?  Leave them in the comments below (or email, whatever works).

Well, it was a good week.  We have several follow up appointments this week with people we met a few days ago, and we're doing our best to find the elect.  I love y'all, and am thankful for your prayers and letters and emails.  Have a great week.

Love, 

Elder Beach

#RollTide

I'm not gonna lie...

Howdy everybody back home, hope y'all are doing well. This week has gone alright. We're doing what we can to find people to teach, so that's basically been our week.

We were knocking some doors earlier and met an older lady named Mary Dean. When we knocked her door she immediately let us in, before we even introduced ourselves. We sat down, and she just started talking to us. She spent a good 30 minutes telling us about all of her medical problems, and then just said "Alright, tell me what y'all are here to tell me." She let us know that she used to have missionaries like us come by every week a while back. (We never did quite figure out if she meant Mormon missionaries or Jehovah's Witnesses or something else haha). Anyway, we just said to her that we would share some things with her and see if any of it was familiar. After taking about 5 minutes to very briefly and simply explain the gist of the Restoration, we paused. I asked her, "Do you understand? Can you put what we just said into your own words?" She just said, "I'm not gonna lie (her favorite phrase), I have no idea." We started over, explaining it even more simply. She seemed to understand a little bit better but still doesn't get it completely. I feel like I've run into this problem so many times before (not so much in Scottsboro, but here down south) where people just don't get it. We explain things so simply and people just can't seem to either grasp what we are saying, or can't connect the dots. I honestly don't know how to be more simple than something like, "If the Book of Mormon is true, then the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's true Church on the earth. The way you can know that this is true is by reading, pondering, and praying about the Book of Mormon." I've said a phrase similar to that many many times, and added my testimony of this truth.  I just pray that one of these days it will 1) make sense to somebody who hears it, and 2) be something that is important to them.

We also met a lady this week named Melissa.  She is a less-active who Elder Kapcsos had met at a store a few months ago, but her address was wrong in the area book so they could never stop by her place.  Anyway, we found the house and met her and her boyfriend.  They were both really nice, and I guess missionaries used to hang out with them quite a bit a few years ago.  She described herself as "very inactive," and that's what she is.  People like her I don't really understand.  She spent a good bit of time basically bearing her testimony to us of how she knows the church is true, knows the Book of Mormon is true, she even told us a story of how she defended the Church against some people who were anti, and stuff like that.  She also is good friends with several of the members, and asked us how each of them were doing.  Yet she also told us that she smokes, drinks, and hasn't set foot in the church for years.  I've met a handful of people like her in my time here in Alabama, and each of them still just kind of blow my mind.  But I guess the scriptures are true when they say, "Faith without works is dead."  It's great to have a testimony.  You should always hang onto that.  However, faith is a principle of action.  If our faith doesn't drive us to do something, it doesn't benefit us at all.  We told her that she is always welcome at church, she just responded, "Oh, I know."  I don't really understand being less-active.  It's a pretty foreign concept in my mind, but I'm trying to love them, serve them, and help them see the blessings of activity in the Lord's Church.

Alright, well today (PDay) we finally got to come up to Montgomery for PDay and for an exchange, so we'll be in my old area for the next couple days which will be fun.  Thanks so much for your prayers, keep 'em coming.  Greenville is tough, and we are trying hard to find people to teach.  I know that there's someone out there, just gotta find them.  Love you guys!  Talk to you next week.

Elder Beach

#RollTide

PS - Happy Father's Day yesterday!  Love you Dad!

Working hard!

 

Found this gem in the closet of my apartment.  Someone sent it to one of the previous missionaries for Christmas...  Maybe it will help me forget about the heat!  :)

The Book of Mormon is true!

Hey everyone, I hope everything is going alright for y'all now that school is out and summer is in full swing.  It's definitely summer here.  Very hot and sweaty, and lots of summer thunderstorms.  It's pretty crazy, but in the words of former comp Elder Marshall, "Rain or shine, sir!"

Like last week, we have been doing a lot of finding.  When I got here we basically started from ground zero, but we are beginning to see some progress.  We found several people this week with some good potential and we have appointments with them in the upcoming week, so that's good.  Let me tell you about a few of them.

On Friday we had Zone Conference, and for the last couple of zone conferences there has been a big focus on using the Book of Mormon more effectively.  We talked about how we should never give away an unopened Book of Mormon.  Always share a scripture from it, or use the introduction or the pictures in the front or something inside the Book to introduce it before giving it away.  We have been doing that a lot better, and also just bearing testimony of the Book of Mormon to people a lot more, and I think that is one of the causes of us finding some of the new potentials that we have.

On Saturday we met a lady named Daisha whom we were able to share a little bit of the Restoration with, and also give her a copy of the Book of Mormon.  She seemed pretty interested and we have a return appointment on Saturday.

That same day we met a guy named Tony.  He was really nice at first, and we just talked about our common belief in the Savior and how important He is.  We eventually sat down and we began teaching him the Restoration.  Very quickly he just started to tell us how we don't have/need prophets today and blah blah blah.  After teaching him a little bit of what I know to be true, I asked him a question that I've asked several people before: "If the Book of Mormon was the word of God, would you read it?"  Of course, he responded that he would.  I then took the opportunity to bear testimony to him that it was and that it would bless his life.  He then rejected another invitation to read and to pray about it for himself.  It never ceases to amaze me how many people will reject something that 1) they have never read and/or know very little about, and 2) they are told will help them, and bless them.  It's sad, but it doesn't stop us from inviting.  They all need what we have.

On Sunday we met a lady named Shea (pronounced "Shay").  We knocked her door, and she was super nice to us, but didn't really seem all that interested.  She told us a lot about how she really respects others' beliefs, and she would never judge anyone for what they believe.  She also told us that she also goes out and "witnesses to people" like we do.  We introduced the Book of Mormon to her, and invited her to read and to pray about it.  She said that she didn't want a copy right now, but if she ever felt that God was telling her that she should read it, or that it was good, then she would get a copy.  I stopped and said something to her like this: "You know, there's something interesting about faith and about how the Holy Ghost works with us.  Very rarely can the Spirit tell you that something is good or that it is true (like the Book of Mormon) before you take the time to read it and to pray about it.  He is very rarely going to say, 'Hey, read that Book, it's true.'  He is almost always going to testify to us after we have begun to read and to pray.  And when we take the time to read, ponder, and pray sincerely about the Book of Mormon, he will always answer us that it is true."  She eventually accepted a copy and a return appointment for this week.  It's an interesting principle that we shared with Shea, and one that Elder Bednar clearly described in his talk "Seek Learning by Faith."  He said, "Faith as the evidence of things not seen looks to the past and confirms our trust in God and our confidence in the truthfulness of things not seen. We stepped into the darkness with assurance and hope, and we received evidence and confirmation as the light in fact moved and provided the illumination we needed."  We often have to step into the dark before the light moves, assuring us and confirming to us that the step we took was correct.  In the words of Elder Rogers from The Best Two Years, "Just remember that one!"

Well, this was a good week.  Things are beginning to pick up as we do our best to talk to anyone and everyone about the Restored Gospel.  It's something that every soul needs to hear and have the opportunity to accept or reject.  I pray that we will find those who will do the former. 

Love you guys!  Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers!  They are the best.  Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Beach

#RollTide

Doing a little service with my dog friend. :)

This is the house we are helping to build.

My companion doing a little fishing.

Our brand new car!!

Me and my companion.

My collection of ties.

My new apartment is sweet!  I have my very own bathroom!

One of the two Young Men in the branch that is active. 

Week 1 in Greenville

Hello to all my family and friends, I hope this letter finds you well.

Like I said last week, things are tough down in Greenville.  There were only two major people that they have been working with down here.  Ava, a 9 year old whose parents are less active, just got baptized last week which is pretty awesome.  However, that means that we probably won't be quite as much of a part of things once new member lessons are done and all that.  Also there was a lady named Peggy who was pretty solid and thinking a lot about baptism, and then she just randomly moved away a few weeks ago.  So this week we have been doing a lot of service, and a lot of finding.  

The branch here is pretty fun.  There are about 35 people who came to church on Sunday, and about 25 of them are over age 55 haha.  There are like no young families.  There are only a handful of youth, and that's about it.  It's not necesarily a bad thing, there's just a lot of age and experience here (I'll put it that way haha).

One of the guys in the branch is Brother Waggoner.  He is like almost 70 years old, and I guess about a year ago he decided, "Hey, I want to build my own house."  So that's what he did.  He's been working on it for quite some time now.  We went and helped him put up the walls and some other stuff this week out in the 95 degree humid heat.  It was pretty fun and pretty sweaty.

On Saturday we went with another member named Randy up to Montgomery to help him clean out his Mom's house/yard.  She passed away a while ago, and her place is a wreck, so Randy has to deal with it.  We basically unloaded a couple of sheds in the yard full of junk that had been there for decades, and took it to the dump.  It was quite the adventure.

On Sunday we had Ava's confirmation, since she got baptized last Tuesday.  That was a pretty cool thing to be a part of on my first Sunday here.  We also had testimony meeting, and it was about the quietest testimony meeting ever, which was not a bad thing.  Everyone that bore testimonies did a really good job, but there were a couple of points during the meeting where there was about 3-5 minutes of silence before someone got up next.  I know some people sometimes get up and they're like, "Well, it was silent for 10 seconds so I had to get up..."  Just so y'all know, you don't have to do that.  If you feel like you need to get up, go right ahead.  However, a minute or two of silence during testimony meeting is one of the best things sometimes.  I remember in Brother Orr's seminary class last year, he would always leave a minute or two for testimony meeting, every single day.  Sometimes, we just sat in silence for a minute and that was fine.  Sometimes, only one or two people would get up and then we would sit in silence for a minute, and that was fine, too.  I like it when there is a minute of silence during testimony meeting so I can pause and think and ponder.  So that's just my bit of advice for the week: If you need to go bear your testimony, please do so.  But don't ever be afraid of silence.  It's often a good thing.

Well, sorry about the short-ish email, but it was a short-ish week, and nothing super major happened.  We've been working and sweating a lot, and we will continue to do so.  Thanks for the prayers, thoughts, notes, emails.  They're always great to get.  I'm excited to be here, and I'm having a good time with Elder Kapcsos.  It's fun, just hard.  Love you guys.  Hope y'all have a great week.

Love, 

Elder Beach

#RollTide

PS - If y'all didn't get a chance to watch President and Sister Nelson's devotional last night (June 3), go watch it.  It was really good.  If you did watch it, make sure to do the 5 things they invited us to do.  Now go out and gather Israel!  Love you guys!

Working and sweating in Alabama!

Doing as much biking as we can to save miles on the car.

Southern babies.

We come across some interesting things in the South!

Saying good-bye to the Villalobos family.  I am going to miss them!

Transfers

Hey everyone, everything's going pretty good here in Alabama, and I hope the same is true for y'all wherever you may be.

First off, just wanna thank everyone for the birthday wishes this week.  It was great to hear from many of you, and to receive notes and gifts from you.  Thanks to Mom, Dad, Addi, Jayden, Garrison, Grandma, Grandpa, as well as aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, and friends who took time to send an email, write a note, or something of the sort.  Also just a special shoutout to Addi for the cool sock tie, and to Jayden for the Chick-fil-a gift cards.  Both are being put to good use. All of your thoughts made it a great birthday, and hey, I only have one more left before I come home haha!

Also, we got transfer calls this week, and I'm going to be leaving Montgomery (sort of).  Technically I'm not really supposed to know where I'm going until I get to transfer meeting on Wednesday, but today the APs sent our district this huge long text telling us in detail what the best way for each of us to get to transfer meeting is while using the least amount of miles.  Anyway, in that text I was told that I'm going to Greenville (which is just south of Montgomery, and actually in the same district) so I am actually not going to transfer meeting.  I'm going to be companions with Elder Kapcsos, whom I went on exchanges with a couple weeks ago.  I look forward to my time there, even though it has historically been one of the toughest areas to work in.  (Many people make jokes about how disobedient missionaries get "banished" to Greenville haha).  It's a struggle down there, but we're gonna go to work and see where it takes us.

We went on a couple of exchanges this week with Carter Hill.  I did one with Elder Robins and one with Elder Mateus.  They were both pretty fun.  When I was with Elder Mateus we were walking up the street and there were some kids out playing football, so we joined in and played with them for a while.  After 15 minutes or so, we left to go stop by some people.  One of them was a less-active guy whom I had met a couple times before.  His is a weird situation.  He lives with his ex-wife and her new husband in their home.  He doesn't do much except lay in bed all day every day, and his little chihuahua, Jasmine, just lays on top of him.  He wears one of those hospital gowns that I don't think has ever been washed.  Jasmine literally just lays on his chest or his shoulder, and eats all of his leftover crumbs and eats stuff out of his beard.  It's pretty gross.  Anyway, we stopped by to see how he was doing, and it happened to be his birthday!  We wished him happy birthday, made sure people were still bringing him the sacrament each week, and asked if he was keeping up with his scripture reading.  Everything seemed to be going pretty well, so that was good.  We shared a scripture and left before Jasmine could attack us haha.

After we left his house, we were walking back to our bikes and the kids that we were playing football with earlier found us.  There were 3 of them who were each like 12 years old, and literally all they talked about was stuff that no 12 year old (or really anyone) should ever be talking about.  I was like, bro where are your parents?  These kids literally followed me and Elder Mateus around for like 20 minutes, and I was pretty sick of them by the end of it.

We taught Robert again this week a couple of times.  We reviewed the Restoration with him, and he had actually read through the pamphlet that we left.  We talked about that, as well as the importance of the Book of Mormon.  For the most part, Robert actually seems to understand what is going on.  He's excited to learn.

There have been a lot of people we have dropped this week.  I always hate dropping people, because I feel like everyone has potential.  When we drop them, we are basically making the decision that they aren't ready to receive the gospel yet.  It's a hard thing to do, but I guess when people aren't ready, they just aren't ready.  It's one thing for people to actually listen and comprehend what we tell them, and then decide to reject it.  It's another thing entirely for them to just have no clue what's going on when we teach them the Restoration.  I don't know what to do about it.  All I know is that I 'm going to keep telling everyone about the wonderful truths that I have come to know for myself - That Jesus is the Christ, that he lived and died and lived again for each of us, that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that the Church of Jesus Christ is again on the earth, and that these truths will bring more happiness to all who discover them than anything else in the world.  I know those things are true, and I'm grateful for the chance I have to share those truths with others, regardless of whether or not they choose to listen.  I'm just going to keep praying that they do, because when we find someone who does it makes everything worth it.  There's not a whole lot of better feelings than when someone accepts a baptismal invitation (or better yet, tells you they want to be baptized without us asking); or someone tells you this phrase: "How can you read the Book of Mormon and say it's not true?"; or when you see a couple of kids get baptized by their dad, and you get to watch the joy on the faces of each of them, as well as many members who have worked for years to get them to that point.  Missions suck sometimes, but they're also filled with some of the greatest experiences anyone could ever have.

Alright, I love you guys.  Thanks again for all of the birthday wishes.  I look forward to going down to Greenville, and I'll let y'all know how that goes next week.  Talk to you later.  

Love, 

Elder Beach

#RollTide

#BanishedToGreenville