Zone Conference, John Brown, and 'Naders Part 2

Hey everyone, I hope y'all had a good week, and everything is going well.  As I think back on the week, it seems as if there is not a whole lot of interesting things to talk about, but I'll just start writing and see where it takes me.

I experienced a couple of firsts this week at church.  Our branch president was out of town this weekend, and so Elder Porter and I as his counselors were pretty much in charge.  I conducted sacrament meeting, which was a little weird.  Nothing too strange, I just hadn't ever done that before.  Second, I set a new record for smallest congregation that I've ever attended.  Normally there are about 30 at church in our branch, but on Sunday there were only 17 including us.  It was pretty sparse.  Lots of people have been sick lately, so that's probably why.  Or maybe they just heard that I would be conducting, haha I don't know.

On Sunday evening we were just stopping by some old people in the area book.  Our area book is crazy.  There are dozens and dozens and dozens of people that are in there that were tracted into, and then there is no indication that they were ever followed up with or dropped.  So there's basically just a ton of people that we need to follow up with, even though it might be months or years later.  We need to at least establish their interest level, and either start teaching them or drop them so we don't just have an area book full of people that we need to follow up with.  That's what we've been doing a fair amount of lately.  Anyway, there was one family that actually had been met and taught a little bit last summer, but for some reason the missionaries stopped going by.  We went over to meet them, and it was quite the visit haha.  The lady we were looking for I guess lives there with her husband and his parents.  We met the parents, and the dad wanted nothing to do with us.  He was very rude.  The wife was really kind, and we visited with her for a few minutes.  The whole time, her husband would just interject and say something like, "I don't want to have anything to do with the Mormons!" or "Some Mormon missionaries told me that if I don't believe John Brown was a prophet I'm going to hell!"  He was quite rude, but we did our best to correct some of his false beliefs in the little time that we had, and the wife said that we could stop by another time.  We'll see what her husband says if we ever do....  It was just another one of those interesting experiences that you see as a missionary all the time.  

I'm grateful for the fact that in our doctrine, we don't hate on or bash other religions like they do to us.  Other churches sometimes even have classes devoted to teaching "the truth about the Mormons."  Though we do believe that we have the fullness of the gospel, we do not condemn others in the least bit for believing in God and following the Savior regardless of their religion.  Elder Anderson even said to us last year when he came to our mission, "If you leave the Church, don't leave the Savior.  Go be a good Baptist or a good Methodist or something else, but never abandon Christ."  That's what we teach, and that's what we believe.  I love that.  We don't tear down other's beliefs.  We say, "Bring what you have, and we will give you more."

We also had our zone conference this week in Tupelo.  It was the first time I've been to Mississippi, and so I had to take a picture with the "Welcome to Mississippi" sign.  I now have one with Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia.  There's only one area in our mission that has a tiny sliver of Georgia, so I can bet that most missionaries here will never have that chance.  Pretty cool.  Anyway, I think my favorite part of our zone conference was when we watched a talk called "Stand Forever" given by Elder Lawrence Corbridge at BYU a few weeks ago.  A while back, one of his assignments as a General Authority was to read pretty much every bit of anti that he could find.  The talk that he gave at BYU a few weeks ago was more or less his response to all of the anti and all of the critics of the Church.  It was a really good talk, and I invite you all to check it out.  You can find it at speeches.byu.edu.  I've listened to it about 3 times this week.  Below are his concluding paragraphs, and I though I'd share them with you:

"There is a God in heaven who is our Eternal Father. I know this by my experience—all of my experience. I know this by the evidence, and the evidence is overwhelming. I know it by study, and, most surely, I know it by the spirit and power of the Holy Ghost.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world. I know this by my experience—all of it. I know this by the evidence, and the evidence is overwhelming. I know it by study, and, most surely, I know it by the spirit and power of the Holy Ghost.
Joseph Smith was a prophet of God who laid the foundation for the restoration of the kingdom of God. I know this by my experience—all of my experience. I know this by the evidence, and the evidence is overwhelming. I know it by study, and, most surely, I know it by the spirit and power of the Holy Ghost.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the kingdom of God on the earth. I know this by my experience—all of it. I know this by the evidence, and the evidence is overwhelming. I know it by study, and, most surely, I know it by the Spirit and power of the Holy Ghost.
And with that I know everything I need to know to stand forever."

I, like Elder Corbridge, know for myself these four eternal truths.  I know that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord's Kingdom on earth.

One last story:  The Haleyville Elders had a baptism this week.  We had something going on in Tupelo on the day of the baptism, and we had to drive them.  So we got back to their church building a couple hours before the service to fill the font and set up and stuff.  We helped them do that, as well as pick up a couple of things because we have a car and they don't.  Anyway, about 30 minutes before the baptism started, we started driving home to finish the night in our area.  We got about 2 minutes down the road and the 'nader sirens started going off, plus it was already dumping rain, so we just decided to attend the baptism and wait out the storm.  We called President and told him what the plan was, and then we got to witness the baptism.  It was pretty awesome.  It was for a guy named John that they were teaching.  He called himself "John the Baptist," but now he's "John the member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."  Haha, it has a little better ring to it, don't you think?  Anyway, it was a good service and we are excited for John and his dedication to follow the Savior.

Okay, well, I love y'all, and pray for you often.  Hope you have a stellar week!

Love, 

Elder Beach

#RollTide

 

Welcome to Alabama!

Now in Mississippi!

Wow!  Look at the price of that milk!  Wish we had an Aldi in Utah!

Filling up the font for John's baptism.

At Zone Conference.

Where's Waldo?  Can you find me?

At Zone Conference.

Illness, Beef, and Speaking in Church

Hey everyone, I hope this week was just stellar for y'all.  Unfortunately Elder Porter suffered near death for several days this week, so we weren't able to go out and do as much work as I would have liked haha.  Just kidding, he was pretty sick but doing much better.  Here are a few highlights from our week.

Last Monday night we went to have dinner with a lady named Desi. She was found a few months ago while Elder Porter and Elder Vanderhoff were trying to locate a less-active on our roster. Desi saw their name tags, read the name of the Church, and said, "Hey, I'm a Latter-day Saint!"  She's not actually a member, but she has several member friends that she talks with regularly, and she has read a little bit from the Book of Mormon.  She came to church once a few weeks ago, but hasn't since then.  When we went up to have dinner with her, we talked about her religious background, and her understanding of the teachings and core doctrine of the Church.  She said that she has never really had a home church, but that she would like one, which is great news!  We also talked a little bit about the Church organization in the New Testament, and how that same organization exists in the Church of Jesus Christ today, specifically that we have a foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the cornerstone.  She asked if there were ever meetings when we got to hear from the prophet, and when we told her about Genera Conference she got super excited.  She even said, "I'm going to have to fly out to Utah and watch that!"  Haha, she's pretty awesome.  She told us she would be at church this week, but unfortunately she was unable to attend.  We are definitely excited to keep working with her though.  She is pretty promising.  One thing that is also awesome about her - she raises/herds cattle, and she somehow is in the business of selling Wagyu beef.  Wagyu is like the absolute best meat that you can get anywhere, and I guess it's only available in Japan.  Somehow she is able to get a hold of it and sell it and eat it, and she is going to share some with us.  I'm so pumped.  For dinner on Monday we had probably the best ribs I've ever had in my life, and she said that those ribs pale in comparison to Wagyu steaks.  It's something I am very much looking forward to.

There is a lady named Maxine in our branch that lives in a nursing home, and we take her the sacrament each Sunday.  She is so awesome.  She might be the only person that I have visited in a nursing home who isn't just sad and depressed all the time.  She has lived there for 4 years, and she is in such good spirits.  It made me happy.  She said that she gets lots of visitors, and I know that that is very beneficial.  She also has a roommate in the facility that has dementia and just kind of yells and moans all day and night, but Maxine has said that she has learned to tune her out.  That in itself is a very impressive talent.  Anyway, Maxine is just someone that makes me happy, and it's great to go visit her each week.

I was asked on Saturday if I would be able to speak on Sunday (a regular occurrence in the life of a missionary serving in a small branch), and so I did so.  I actually wrote a talk that I had kind of been putting together ideas for for quite some time, and so it was good to be able to finally put those scriptures and ideas into a talk.  I'll send a copy of it home and so you can all see how Holland-esque I am at talk writing.  Haha, I thought it went well.

Unfortunately, that is most of the major stuff that we got to this week due to our illness quarantine, so hopefully next week I'll have some more adventures for y'all that I can share.  Just know that I love you, pray for you, and hope that everything is going well for you.

Scripture for the week is Alma 33:14 - "I would ask if ye have read the scriptures?  If ye have, how can ye disbelieve on the Son of God?"  I know that the scriptures testify over and over again of the Savior - of His life, His divinity, His atoning sacrifice.  I love the scriptures, and I love the Lord of whom they testify.  And I love y'all too!

Love, 

Elder Beach

#RollTide

Hiking on p-day. Front to back - Elders Blackwell, me, Moffat, Porter

A dam we attempted to build without much success.

There was a lot of water!

Random pic from Natural Bridge state Park. I assume this is how it got its name.

Week 1 in Hamilton

Hey everyone, this has been a good week!  I hope that y'all have been having a good one as well.  

First off, I was transferred to Hamilton this week.  It's a small town in Northwest Alabama, and we are in the Tupelo, Mississippi Stake.  My new companion is Elder Porter, who has been out for about 3 months.  He just finished being trained by my former companion Elder Vanderhoff.  Haha it makes for some funny stories.  Plus he does lots of dumb spontaneous impressions like me, so we have some funny/random conversations. Also, I just got an email from the Church Missionary Department this week, and they will be changing all missionary emails soon.  Instead of "@myldsmail.net" the new emails will be "@missionary.org."  

This week was awesome.  One thing that's really cool about the area is our house.  We don't live in an apartment, like when I was in Montgomery.  In fact, I don't even know if there are apartments in this town besides senior living and the projects.  There might be.  Anyway, our house is huge and really cool, and we even have a storm shelter in the backyard.  There is also a pond out back that we can go fishing in, though I'm not a huge fisherman.

The average branch attendance is about 40, which is what I'm used to as a missionary.  I enjoy it.  It's going to be odd to be back in a ward of several hundred when that day arrives.  Elder Porter and I have been assigned to be the counselors in the branch presidency haha.  It's pretty cool I guess.  We just sit on the stand and conduct Sacrament Meeting sometimes, and have Branch Presidency and branch council meetings weekly.  It's a good way to get to know people in the branch rather quickly.

On Sunday, President Ennis, the Branch President, asked us to go deliver the Sacrament to his dad, Jerry.  He told us that Jerry had a stroke about a year ago, but Jerry didn't believe that he had.  It was good to go see and visit with him for a bit.  His state kind of seemed about like if someone had really mild Alzheimer's.  However he was very kind, and very appreciative.  He also asked us to give him a blessing, and it was a great experience to be able to do so.

Also on Sunday about halfway through Sacrament Meeting, President Ennis announced that the choir would be doing a number, and Elder Porter leans over to me and says, "Oh yeah, I probably should have told you this, but we're in the choir."  Haha so we got up and sang and it went great.  Luckily it was a song that I was familiar with.

There is an awesome recent convert in our branch named Christal that we go visit fairly often.  She has 2 twin daughters named Ashley and Alexis, who aren't super eager to attend church with her or commit to do anything, but Christal is just solid and keeps inviting them to stuff.  I think that eventually they'll come around.  I know that they have noticed a huge change in their mom since she started learning about the gospel and since she was baptized.  I didn't know her before, but I've heard she has had quite the turn around.  I'm thankful for the gospel, and how living it will soften hearts, and change people for the better.  As King Benjamin said, "I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God, for they are blessed in all things..."  I know that when we keep the commandments, honor our covenants, and strive our best to follow the teachings and the example of the Savior, we are truly blessed in all things.  Life is still tough sometimes, but it is always much more joyful and fulfilling.  I have seen that, and I know Christal has as well.  It's a great thing to witness, and a great thing to experience.

Hope y'all have an awesome week!  Happy Valentine's Day this week too!  Love y'all!

Elder Beach

#RollTide

PS - A member that we had a team-up with may or may not have (but definitely did) run over a dog with his car while we were with him.  Ummmm....all dogs go to heaven, right?

Good-bye, Elder Corbett!

Missionaries going home this week.

Bye Bye B-Ham

Hello all, we have quite the busy day, so I'm going to try and write as much as I can in what little time I have.

We received our transfer news that the both of us will be leaving this area.  Obviously Elder Corbett was leaving because he's going home, but we were both shocked to hear that I will be leaving as well.  President Sainsbury told us that he's putting Sisters in this area which will definitely shake things up.  This is the Zone Leader area, and so we have been speculating all day about how the zone is going to shape up with the zone leaders moving areas.  It's going to be weird, and I hope it all works out well.  We won't know until tomorrow.  Either way, I have to get packed and ready to leave when I wasn't planning on it today.  Also, there was some trouble with flights for the new missionaries coming in today.  Because of that, our transfer meeting will be later than usual tomorrow, and that is exactly the time that Elder Corbett was supposed to have his exit interview.  Thus, the interview was moved to today, and our p-day has been cut even shorter.  It's fun.

This week we met with President Denkers, our Branch President.  He, along with the Elder's Quorum President and Relief Society President and others, have been drafting a plan to get those semi-active individuals in our branch returned to full activity in the Church.  He enlisted our help, and we were super excited to get working on it.  However, we have been cut short in our work as we will be leaving.  Hopefully the new Sisters here can get up to speed on stuff quickly.  I'm sure they will.

I'm really going to miss this area.  I'm finally in a point where I am friends with the members, I know everyone's name, and I am comfortable with asking for their help in our missionary efforts.  This is also just a great area because we have the opportunity to be around lots of other missionaries, which I really enjoy.  It is also by far the largest area I have covered (both in geographical area and population).  I'm sad to leave, but I'm excited for the future.  I'll be a little more comfortable with what's coming when I actually find out where I'm going and who my companion is tomorrow.  The day in between transfer news and actual transfers is always the worst haha.

We were less-active hunting the other day, and we stopped by one lady's house that was on our records.  She didn't live there, but we did meet someone who did live there named Kimberly.  It was quite the unique experience meeting her.  We explained that we were looking for a member of our church, and so she asked which church it was.  The conversation went something like this:

Her: "What church are you from?"

Us:  "We're from the Church of Jesus Christ."

Her:  "What's that?"

Us:  "We're Christian, we belong to the Church of Jesus Christ.  Have you ever heard of the Book of Mormon?

Her:   "Uh, no."

Us:   "...."

Her:  "Oh, are you the Latter-day Saints?"

Us:  "Yes! That's us! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

I almost always leave out "of Latter-day Saints" when first introducing the Church.  It had never been an issue before, but we realized we should have used it in this instance.  Once we finally got that straightened out, she proceeded to tell us that she had recently seen a commercial from our church.  Ever since then, she had just kept thinking to herself, "I think the Latter-day Saints are going to come into my life soon."  Well, lo and behold, there we were!  She was so excited to see us.  We briefly explained our unique message to the world, the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and she gladly took a copy of the Book of Mormon.  She told us she would like to come to church with us.  We noticed that she had a little girl, and so she wouldn't be attending the YSA.  We got her the info of the missionaries in her area, and as soon as we left we called them and told them to go meet her, which they did.  I'm excited to see where the future takes Kimberly in her progress.  It was one of the most incredible initial contacts with someone that I've had in a long time.  She was just so ready to receive us.  It was awesome.  

Alma 13:24 - "For behold, angels are declaring it unto many at this time in our land; and this is for the purpose of preparing the hearts of the children of men to receive his word at the time of his coming in his glory." 

Alma 16:16 - " the Lord did pour out his Spirit on all the face of the land to prepare the minds of the children of men, or to prepare their hearts to receive the word which should be taught among them at the time of his coming." 

People are being prepared.  Kimberly was one of many examples I have seen on my mission.

Alright, well we probably need to get zooming.  I love y'all.  Hope you have a great week!  I'll let you know where I'm going and who my companion is as soon as I can.

Love, 

Elder Beach

#RollTide

Our branch at Krispy Kreme.

Trying on some new frames for my new glasses.

Sculpture in our area.

Last time together before some of these missionaries go home.

Transfer day!