We started off our week, shortly after I emailed last Monday, with a trip to the disc golf course. I didn't do too well, but it was fun to get out and do something fun last p-day.
Monday night we had a lesson with a lady named Katelyn. She was actually a referral from President Sainsbury a while back. She works in Tupelo at a restaurant, and that's where President met her. He asked if the missionaries in Hamilton could come by and she said that would be fine. Katelyn attends this church/school/ministry thing here in Hamilton called the Ramp. I didn't really know a whole lot about it, and after asking her I still don't know a whole lot about it haha. Her description of what it is went about like this: "We are just all about Jesus, we don't really have any doctrine, it's just Jesus." That's pretty typical. Anyway, we had a good Q&A, and we did our best to teach her about how Christ established His Church, and that the Book of Mormon is evidence that it has been restored to the earth. She didn't seem too interested in reading or learning more, but it was a good visit nonetheless.
On Tuesday we drove to Haleyville for our district council and then I drove back to Hamilton with Elder Blackwell for our exchange. Nothing really too exciting happened (though we did find an old bottle of moonshine in our shed). I'm not really sure exactly what it is. There were lots of people in our area book that we tried to visit with minimal success. One lady in the book we did actually see, though I can't remember her name. She was old, and told us that her late father was actually a member of our Church (not sure if that's actually accurate). We asked her if she ever went to church with him when he was alive. She said, "No, he would just leave me and my sisters home while he went to church, and told us not to talk while he was gone. If he found out we talked, he would beat us. That's just how the Mormons were back then." Ummmm, I don't think so. It was odd. We asked her if she had a copy of the Book of Mormon to read, and she told us she couldn't read. I'm not sure if she meant that due to her eyesight or her illiteracy. We asked if it would be okay if visited again and read some scriptures with her, but unfortunately she rejected the offer.
One day a couple weeks ago we had offered to go up to Desi's farm and help out with whatever they needed for a while, and on Friday she took us up on the offer. We got a text from her the morning of saying that they had lost one of their cows and they needed help finding it. When we got there, we and some of their neighbors went out searching for this cow that had escaped. Desi owns about 200 acres, and there is a lot more land than that surrounding them, so it was quite the area we needed to cover. Elder Porter and I were tasked with going out into the woods where they hadn't searched yet. It was a place where I doubt any cow would go. Very hilly, rough terrain, and super thick trees and thorny weeds. We each took a machete and just pounded it anyway. I felt pretty awesome just hacking my way through a forest with a machete haha. The two of us didn't find the cow, but eventually we got the call that it was found. Then we helped them out with some other stuff around the farm for a bit, and they cooked us some incredible wagyu steaks as "payment" for helping them out. The steaks were well worth it.
We spent one day this week down in Winfield, about 25 miles south of Hamilton, visiting less-actives and people in our area book from the past that were never followed up with. We met one less-active who let us in and we visited with him for quite some time. He is a guy with a mindset that I have seen in several other folks, but I still don't understand. He spent a good amount of time sharing with us his spiritual experiences that he has had, sharing with us his testimony of the gospel, and sharing with us times that he has shared the gospel with others, both blessing their lives and his. He knows the gospel is true. He knows the Church is true. He knows that living the gospel blesses his life, and makes him happy. Yet he hasn't been to church in long time, he doesn't read his scriptures regularly, and he doesn't obey the word of wisdom. I recently listened to a talk by Hyrum Smith (no, not Joseph's brother) given at a BYUI devotional titled, "What we do depends on how we feel about what we know." I thought that was an interesting concept. Sometimes we can know that the Church is true, we can know the gospel is true, and yet we still willingly and knowingly do things that are contrary to their teachings. Sometimes we, like this brother I told y'all about, don't feel strongly enough about the things that we know. I guess that's the difference between "testimony" and "conversion," and the difference between passive belief and active faith. We not only have to know what it right, we need to do it.
Alrighty, well I hope y'all have a great week. I love you and pray for you often. Keep being solid and doing awesome. Talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Beach
#RollTide
Doing a little disc golf last p-day.
My awesome ninja move.
I didn't really kill this cat with my bb gun. It was already dead, so I just posed beside it.
Cool house we passed.
The moonshine we found in the shed.
Driving on Desi's farm, trying to find the lost cow.
Heading into the woods with our machetes.
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