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!
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