Testifying of The Book of Mormon and other Missionary Adventures

Hey friends and family, I hope y'all had a good week as we did. Not everything went according to plan, but that's okay. We made the most of things and had a good week. 

Last Tuesday we had to go to Birmingham so I could see the endocrinologist. Everything is fine and I'm still alive so that was good. We also had to grab Elder Vanderhoff's bike from the shop in Hoover while we were down that way. It had been in the shop for like 2 or 3 weeks and they told us that it would finally be done on Tuesday. So we went in at like 11 after the doctor to see if they were done. We were told that it would be finished "later that afternoon." So we decided to do a little store contacting/shoe shopping at Dick' s Sports. There are basically no places to buy shoes in Attalla, so that worked out nice. I got a nice pair of shoes, and after hours longer than was necessary, we finally got the bike and headed home. It was a fairly uneventful day. 


Wednesday and Thursday we had an exchange in Gadsden and I went with Elder Quayle. I had already done an exchange with him a few months ago in Montgomery, but we went and worked and had a good time. We met a lady who talked to us for like an hour about the demons that live in her house. It was pretty weird. She asked us what our thoughts were on that. I told her something like, "Well, I don't want to place blame on you or anyone else, but it is my understanding that evil spirits or feelings or things like that cannot usually enter an environment without in a way being invited in. And they are invited in by contentious behavior, and by people who are not keeping God's commandments." That is the case with us all. When we keep the commandments, and when we love God and our neighbor, we have the Spirit with us. And when we choose to not do those things, we cause the Spirit to leave and sometimes cause evil to be felt. It may or may not be as dramatic as this lady was describing, but the principle is the same in every situation. Moral: keep the commandments, and you keep the Spirit with you always. 


We also met this guy in the hood on the exchange and we were just talking to him on his porch. After a minute of talking he asks me, "Do you want a smart watch?" I just kinda sat there and didn't respond, thinking he might want me to buy one or something. But he quickly just grabs one out of his pocket and hands it to me. He said, "I promise it ain't stolen or nothing." Haha I hope not. It's not super nice, but hey, that was cool. So now I have a smart watch. It can't do much because you have to have a certain app on your phone to use most of the features and our phones block just about everything, but it's cool nonetheless. 


We saw Daniel on Saturday and taught him the Word of Wisdom. He said that it really made sense and he made the commitment to live it. He's never really had major issues with it - he just drinks tea and coffee - but those are a lot easier to quit than tobacco or other stronger things, so he should do fine. He is such an easy guy to teach. He just soaks everything up and loves learning about everything. He spends lots of time reading in the gospel library, and everything we teach just clicks with him. It's so awesome. Unfortunately, he didn't come to church this week though. When we saw him Saturday morning he was about out of energy, and he told us on Sunday that his Saturday night was really busy and taxing at work. He told us that he basically slept all day Sunday. That was too bad, but at least he's been as many times as he has, is comfortable with and friends with many members, and is still ready to be baptized on October 13. We're excited for him. 


We also went and saw Ruby this week to help her paint a birdhouse that she has in her yard. She is such a funny lady, and she is excited to be baptized as well. She has set a date for October 21. That is the day that her family and friends can make it, and so that's when it will be. That day is a long time in the making, and it's a blessing to be a part of. 
We met a lady tracting last night. She was really open and we were able to just teach her briefly about the Restoration and make a time next week when we can see her again. She just kept telling us over and over about how it was such great timing that we came to her house that night and how she just needed God in her life a little bit more. Hey, that's what we're here for! Hopefully we can continue teaching her in the future. 


We also met another lady last night who spent like 20+ minutes telling us that Jesus was God, and basically that God the Father wasn't really a person because Jesus is him. Anyway, after her little bout of false doctrine, I just asked her, "Okay, so then who did Jesus pray to while he was on earth?" Now I've heard plenty of incorrect principles that people believe, but she responded with something I had never heard before. She said, "Jesus never actually prayed, he was just quoting scripture." What? Yeah that's completely false. Anyway, we basically just left her with our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and how it is the Book that will prepare the world for the Savior's second coming. And also how when we read it we can understand true principles about God and his Son, Jesus Christ. Whether or not she ever reads the Book is up to her, but we taught and testified to the best of our ability in between her rude interruptions every 5 seconds. That's about the best we can do.


In Elders Quorum this week we read a talk from the October 1983 General Conference by Bruce R. McConkie titled,"What Think Ye of the Book of Mormon?" It is one if the more straightforward, you-need-to-do-this-or-else type of talks I have heard in a long time. Elder McConkie basically tells that it is impossible to follow the Lord, impossible to understand His will and do it, impossible to be saved in the highest degree, impossible to receive all the blessings that the Lord wants for us to receive, without reading, understanding, accepting, and living the principles taught in the Book or Mormon. If we reject that Book, we reject salvation. It was quite the talk, and I invite y'all the check it out on your own or for a FHE or something. I add my testimony to Elder McConkie that the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God. It came forth the way that the Prophet Joseph said it came forth, and it was brought to light in our day to convince all that Jesus is the Christ, and that all those who will come unto him and obey the laws and ordinances of his gospel may be saved. What a great blessing the Book of Mormon is. Let us not take it for granted. 


I told y'all about a few people last week that we never were able to find at home or catch at a good time. Hazel, Cathy, and the other Cathy were some of those. Andrea pushed our Skype visit with her missionary son to next Monday, so we will do that then. Sorry for the bummer update on those people, but that's how it goes sometimes. 


Love y'all! Have a great week! Happy birthday again to Jayden last week, Addi today, and Dad tomorrow. Love you guys. Mom too! Talk to y'all next week.


Elder Beach
#RollTide#4-0
#Tua4Heisman

The birdhouse we helped Ruby paint.

Exchanges and golf with the Gadsden Elders.

A cute little girl from our branch.  

Birthdays and Baptisms

Hey y'all, this was a good week in Attalla.  We had a couple of scorcher days, upwards of 98 or so.  It was pretty brutal.  Want to know what else was brutal?  Alabama's spanking of Ole Miss.  The Tide set a new SEC record by scoring 50+ points in their first 3 games, so things are shaping up pretty well for them.

First off, I would like to give a huge happy birthday shout out this week and next to the loveliest sisters out there, Addi and Jayden.  I hear that y'all are quite the daters haha.  That was never really my thing, so maybe it will be yours.  Don't party too hard on your birthdays!  I'm planning on sending something in the mail tomorrow or Wednesday so watch out for it.  Also happy birthday Dad next week, and everybody else who has September birthdays (which is lots haha).  Hope y'all have good birthdays.

We were able to meet with Daniel this week on Friday and just talk for a while about a few things.  Our goal for that visit was to go over all of the baptismal interview questions that we had taught him so far, and set a baptismal date with him.  The date we set was October 13, and that is a solid date.  I'm confident that he will be baptized then.  It probably could have been earlier, but we wanted to make sure that we have plenty of time to finish teaching him everything due to his busy work schedule.  We also thought that waiting until after General Conference would be great, because what better week is there than Conference week to really strengthen and solidify a testimony right before your baptism?  Everything  should work out really well.  On Friday when we were at his house, we were also able to meet his wife and daughter for the first time.  They each were nice to us, and we talked for a few minutes, but they just left the room when we started talking with Daniel.  When I asked him at church what their thoughts were about him coming to church with us, he didn't really have a lot to say.  They both just seem kind of indifferent to the whole thing.  I asked him if he thought either of them would come to church with him and he said, "Probably not.  They just don't get it."  That is tough, but I'm glad to know that Daniel does "get it."  He knows what his priorities are, and he's sticking with them.  In fact, he told us on Sunday that his wife had asked him if he wanted to go to breakfast that morning, and he just told her that he needed to go to church instead.  I hope that his church attendance and future membership don't cause a problem.  It doesn't seem like it's a big point of conflict at this point, just a little bit of an annoyance.  I hope that his wife can see that this is a good thing for Daniel, and he truly believes in it. Time will tell, but for now just keep them in your prayers.

I texted Ruby and asked her if she had set a date for her baptism, and she responded, "Not yet but working on it."  At church she told us that she had set a date, but she couldn't remember exactly what it was.  Sometime around a month from now.  She said October 23, but she also said that the date she set was a Sunday, and that is not.  Whenever her date is, it's coming up in the near future, and we are definitely excited for her.  It's a long time coming, and she is so ready for it.

We met a guy tracting this week named David.  We talked to him on his porch for a while, and we shared with him how we believe that God has called a prophet in our day.  He was really interested in hearing from the prophet, so we told him that he could in a couple weeks at General Conference, and we also directed him to mormon.org and lds.org where he could listen to the Prophet and Apostles speak.  He seemed pretty intent on looking them up, and so we left him with that info and a return appointment.  When we came back, he told us that he had in fact looked up and listened to a few talks.  I'm not exactly sure what or who he listened to, but I'm sure it was something from General Conference.  When we asked him what he thought about it, he responded, "It's not really my cup of tea."  What?  I asked if there was anything specific that he heard that made him feel uncomfortable or anything.  He said no, and repeated that it just wasn't his cup of tea.  Obviously people have their agency and their past beliefs, and so on and so forth.  However, it still just blows my mind that anybody who believes in the Savior and His divine mission could listen to anything from General Conference and say, "I don't believe this."  General Conference is literally the time when the Lord's mouthpiece(s) on the earth speak the words that He Himself would speak were He physically here.  Anyway, David told us that he wasn't really interested in hearing anymore, so we probably won't go back again.  We taught and we invited, and that's about all we can do.  I just want y'all to know that I'm so excited for General Conference.  I know that President Nelson is truly a prophet of God, and that whatever he says is what God would have us know.  What a blessing it is to be able to hear the words of God's chosen servants, for He has promised, "whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same."  

We got a call last Monday night from a lady named Andrea.  She is a less- active, and I have never met her, though I have heard quite a bit about her and her weird life story from several members.  Well, she calls us and says that her husband, Scott (I assume it's her 2nd husband - again, weird life story) is a non-member and is going to start taking the lessons.  She tells us that her son (I assume that it's her son from her previous marriage) is on a mission, and had received permission from his Mission President to Skype in and start teaching his (step?) dad.  The condition from his Mission President was that he could only Skype in if the local missionaries, being us, were also present for the lesson.  So that's pretty cool.  We scheduled a time to go and meet with Andrea and Scott and start teaching.  Well, that scheduled time was supposed to be today, and has since been rescheduled for next Monday, so that's when we are going to go see them.  I definitely look forward to it.  It was pretty miraculous how the whole thing came about, and it should be awesome.

I told y'all about Hazel last week.  We went by her place twice this week and we were told both times by someone else at the house that she was sleeping and to try another time.  We'll see if we can catch her awake one of these days.  We weren't able to catch Cathy this week either, but we are going to try and see her tomorrow, I believe.  Hopefully we can see her because she seemed pretty open and interested.

All in all, this was a good week.  We've been playing a little ping pong still, and my backhand spikes are getting pretty good.  I never used to be good at that, but I'm figuring it out haha.  

I am thankful for this chance I have to serve.  Hard to believe I'm hitting 14 months this week.  I know that this is the Lord's work and that He definitely has His hand in it.  Thanks for all of your support, love, and prayers.  Know that you're in mine.

Love y'all!

Elder Beach

#RollTide

#3-0

Hanging out with a homie from our branch that is headed to BYUI to study.

Small portion of a toy collection in someone's house.

Just another adventure in Alabama!

Faith to Find the Elect

Hey everyone, this was yet another good week here in Attalla. 

This week we had zone conference down in Birmingham. It was great to see lots of my good buddies from the mission. One kinda bummer of a story was that a while back Elder Maness did something to hurt his foot. I guess it had started acting up again and he was told that he had to go home and get surgery. At Zone Conference he was wearing a boot, and told me he was probably flying home in about 2 weeks. Then at lunch, President Sainsbury just walks up to him and says, "Elder Maness, your flight leaves at 8:30 AM on Saturday." Well it was Thursday, so that's pretty quick. Anyway, he had to leave. He's one if my favorite dudes so that was pretty sad. He said he would be back in about 6 weeks. But then today, Monday, he calls us and is like, "Well, my doctor here at home just said I need to to physical therapy a few times a week until October. He wondered why I was even sent home in the first place. So I'm basically just chillin' here playing 2k until my foot gets better." Haha Elder Maness is a funny dude, but that just sucks he had to be sent home for something that could have been fixed out here. But hey, he came out on the mission 6 weeks before me, so maybe we can fly home together now. 

Zone Conference was really good, and we talked a lot about finding. That's something that we have been struggling with here in Attalla, but Zone Conference helped us with some ideas we can implement to see if we can find the elect. I know they're out there, we just gotta find them. 

There is an older lady named Hazel that we met and taught this week. She's really nice, just a little bit clueless haha. She claims to have read the whole Book of Mormon before, but doesn't remember any of it. She also just agrees with everything that we say. For example, she says she knows that the First Vision happened, and that the Book of Mormon is true, but when we invited her to church she said no. We'll see where things go from here. There are lots of people like her that I have met on my mission. President gave a couple of suggestions to help people's comprehension, so we'll try them out on her. 

This week in church both Elder Vanderhoff and I were asked to speak in church, and I was asked to talk about the Holy Ghost. I want to share with y'all just a part of my talk as my testimony this week:

"The power or influence of the Holy Ghost is the power by which men or women gain testimonies of gospel truths. 


Paul, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, stated that "no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." 


Peter, when asked by the Savior, "Whom say ye that I am?" responded, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." The scripture continues, "And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."


Both Peter and Paul had testimonies of the Lord Jesus Christ that they received not of men, but by the divine power of the Holy Ghost. They knew, as Moroni later taught, that "by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." 


I know this principle to be true. I have received numerous divine witnesses of true gospel principles - that Jesus is the Christ, that His power to forgive is real, and that the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God." 

I'm so thankful for the gift of the Holy Ghost and for his testifying power to each of us who seek a divine witness. 

It was also great to be able to watch the Face to Face event with Elder Cook last night. I thought it was a wonderful event. Church history is something that there is a lot of anti material about, because there's a lot of weird stuff that most people don't understand (like seer stones, polygamy, freemasonry, and stuff like that.) Not gonna say that I understand it all, but the Face to Face definitely cleared some things up, and I'm sure the new "Saints" book will as well. I mostly just love listening to an Apostle testify of the Savior. That's their main purpose, to be a special witness of Christ, and it's always powerful to hear them do that. 

One more story: we met a lady named Cathy. I'm not sure if it was this week or last week, but we met her tracting and talked to her on her porch for like 30 minutes. She said she was Baptist, but had some very different feelings than most Baptists I've met. She told us that she didn't believe that what the pastor said was final, but that each person should look things up for themselves. (In the South, most of the time when people discover things "for themselves" like we ask them to do, that means that they go to their pastor and get a bunch of anti about us.) Cathy also told us that there were Baptists, and there were Pure Baptists. When I asked her what that was, she said, "Well, they just kind of have their own set of rules, but most people don't really follow them." I thought that was so odd. So much confusion within one denomination. Anyway, we talked to Cathy about the Savior's Church, the Apostasy, and the Restoration, and she seemed to at least understand and believe in the first two principles. She told us she would be out of town for about 2 weeks or so, but that we could stop by after that. She has our number and a pamphlet, and we will hopefully see her in about a week. 

Daniel came to church, is continuing to read the Book of Mormon and basically anything he can find on the Gospel Library app. It's still tough to meet with him because of his work/sleep schedule, but he is so awesome when we do. We are hopeful that we can set a baptismal date with him this week. 

Well, it was a good week. We are looking forward to moving apartments around Halloween time, so that we can be closer to members, and closer to where we do most of our work. We bike approximately 15 miles per day just to get to where most of the people are, so we are looking forward to the move. Hopefully I stay one more transfer so it can become a reality. 

Love y'all! I know that this is the Lord's work, and with his help we will find the elect. Thank you so much for the prayers. Keep 'em coming. 

Love,
Elder Beach
#RollTide 
#2-0

Sometimes you just gotta swing. :)

Temple, Ping Pong, and Such

This week was another good week here in Attalla.  Some things are picking up, some things are slowing down, but all in all it was pretty good.

We got to go the temple last Thursday which was so awesome.  I always love going to the temple.  I was a little worried because we got a text from the Zone Leaders on Wednesday night saying, "The temple is having technical difficulties.  We will probably be doing baptisms tomorrow."  Doing baptisms is not a bad thing, but I did not want to do that.  When we showed up to the temple, one of the workers said that they had just got a new AC unit or system or something, and it had been leaking on the projector so it pretty much broke it.  However, they were somehow able to get everything fixed for us to do a session, so I was very relieved.  Has the day of miracles ceased?  Haha we had a great session, and it was great to be able to see some friends from the zone.

We had a lesson with Daniel this week, and we basically just talked about the restoration of Priesthood authority.  We figured that he didn't really get that quite yet, so that's what we focused on.  After a while of talking he just stopped and said, "Wow that makes sense.  I get it now."  Daniel is such a funny guy.  He's just kind of odd and awkward, but he's so funny and we love him.  Like half of the time he seems like he completely understands everything we say, and then like a few minutes later or the next day he doesn't really get it at all.  However, our focus with him for the past week has been the Priesthood, and I am fairly certain that he understands what it is and why it's necessary.  That was our goal for this week, and he seems to have it down.  It was a great moment when he just said, "Yeah that makes sense now."  It's so awesome when things just finally click with people.  We were supposed to have a lesson with him yesterday, but we weren't ever able to get a hold of him on the phone or by stopping by so I'm not sure what happened.  We are planning that whenever we have another lesson with him, we will set a solid baptismal date to work towards.  

Switching gears here - there is a lady in the branch named Ruby Blount.  She is in her 60s or so, and she was baptized some 20 years ago.  Not long after, for some reason that I don't know if she even understands, she removed her name from the records of the church.  She just told us, "There were some things that I had to work through."  Not sure the whole story, but she left the church.  Then about a year ago, there were some missionaries who knocked on her door (I think they were sent there by another member), and she almost immediately had her testimony rekindled and she started coming back to church.  She has been meeting with our Branch and Stake Presidents over the last little while, and she is working towards getting re-baptized.  She should actually be setting a date here in the next couple of weeks.  She is so awesome, and we love her.  She's such a sweet lady and she has such a great testimony.  She has said so many times that being baptized again will mean a lot more to her than the first time because of all of the work she has had to do to get to this point.  We love her, and we're excited for her upcoming baptism.

When we weekly planned this week, we basically went through our list of people that we are "teaching" and with almost all of them we just said, "They need to understand our purpose.  We are here to help them come unto Christ through the waters of baptism.  And we pretty much need to lovingly give them an ultimatum.  Keep commitments, or we stop coming by."  We have done this with a couple of people already, and it's so much easier to just be straight up with people from the beginning.  We have had some really good lessons with those people where we have told them our purpose, as plain and clear as we can.  And we tell them that that is the reason we ask them to read, pray, come to church, etc.  We are asking them to 1) repent, and 2) be able to decide for themselves if they want to be baptized into the Lord's Church.

We also got to go see Robert again last week.  We haven't seen him for a few weeks because he has been sick, and because he lives like 30 minutes away in Altoona.  I'm not sure what to do with him.  He is an honest seeker of truth, he loves meeting with us, and learning from what we have to share with him.  However he can't read very much because he is blind in one eye, he doesn't drive because he can't see well and doesn't want to wreck, and won't accept a ride to church.  Even if he did, it would be hard to find someone willing to drive 60+ minutes to get him.  Haha it seems like many people who have lots of potential also have lots of issues.  He really wants to just be a part of the right church.  He knows that while many are good, not all of them are the true church.  He wants to find the true church and be in it to stay.  However, physical ailments are inhibiting that right now.  Tough situation.

Alrighty, well this was a good week.  Finding has been a little bit more productive than weeks past, and we have a few potentials that we are excited about.  Alabama spanked Louisville on Saturday, and everyone is looking forward to another CFP championship.  The work is rolling forward "boldly, nobly, and independent" and it's a joy to be a part of.  Love y'all, have a good week!

Elder Beach

#RollTide

#1-0

PS - We found a ping pong net and a couple of paddles at the church that we borrowed haha.  We had to put our desks together in the apartment to make an oddly shaped table, but it worked.  When you work hard, you gotta play hard sometimes too!

Temple trip!

Our Zone at the temple.

Our district at the temple.

Ka-bobs