Ensign Worthy

Hello everyone, hope y'all have had a good week. Ours has had some ups and downs, but I guess I'll give you a brief synopsis of it. We'll start with the bummers so that we can end on a good note. 

First off, William has still been working overtime this week and we haven't had much time to meet with him. It seems like we schedule a lesson, and then call him an hour or so before to confirm and he has to reschedule. That has happened several times this week. It's rather unfortunate. Our next scheduled lesson with him is on Wednesday, so hopefully it goes through. 

Hunter has been kind of the same story. We were really excited to see him again on Thursday, and he had told us before that he had school early and work late in the day, so we could see him between 2 and 5 PM. We texted him at about 2 and asked if we could come by at 4, but he just responded, "Have work. Next week for sure." We rescheduled for Tuesday so hopefully we can catch him at home then. 

One odd experience we had yesterday that I thought I'd share: we were knocking doors for a while, and nothing was really going anywhere. Most people were kinda rude as they tend to be, telling us they already have a church or they have already "accepted Christ" and therefore have no need for our message. Then at one door we knock we get an answer from a guy who told us he was an atheist. He was kind, down to earth, and just nicely told us that he wasn't interested. We actually told him that he was the nicest person we had talked to that night. He seemed surprised by that (and rightly so). Here's one lesson I learned from that: merely professing belief in, or "accepting" Christ doesn't really mean anything unless we choose to follow His teachings. And what are His teachings? 1) Love God, and 2) love your neighbor. Some people, (from every religion, social class, ethnicity, and walk of life) tend to forget that sometimes - even those who claim to follow the Savior and love His gospel. Let's do our best to not be in that group. No matter what our circumstance, or the circumstance of those around us, let's just love each other. Life is better that way. 

Alrighty, highlight of the week coming right up!.... I told y'all about Nick a couple weeks ago. He's a 19ish-year-old kid that the Sisters have been teaching for a while, and his parents who live in Texas are pretty against him getting baptized. Some awesome stuff happened this week and I want y'all to hear about it. It's full of tons of miracles. 

First off, Nick's story starts about a year ago when he was really struggling with life. He was depressed, and one day he went to the library to visit with his friend, Megan, to see how she could help him out and lift his spirits. Megan wasn't planning on this, but when they got to the library she happened to pass by a copy of the Book of Mormon on the shelf. She grabbed it, shared some verses with him, shared her testimony, and after a two-hour conversation about the gospel, Megan said, "Nick, this is the only thing that will help you." Later she got him his own copy. Fast forward a few months, Megan has basically taught Nick all of the lessons in Preach My Gospel, he understands the gospel, and is loving it. Best of all, when he reads the Book of Mormon, he's happy. They eventually part ways to go to college (Nick here in Alabama and Megan in Utah, I believe). Megan referred the Tuscaloosa Sisters to Nick, and from the day they met each other, Nick was pretty much ready to get baptized. However, he had his parents in the background which put a stop to that. Anyway, he does everything he can to come to church, read the scriptures, and live the gospel without being baptized because of his parents. 

Lots of prayers by lots of people went up in behalf of Nick in the last couple months. About 3 weeks ago Nick and the Sisters actually drove up to the temple in Gardendale just so Nick could walk around on the grounds and sit in the waiting room so he could feel the spirit of the temple. That was kind of a turning point for him, and so shortly after that while in a lesson, Nick half-jokingly said to the Sisters that if they could fly his friend Megan out from Utah, then he would get baptized even if his parents still said no. They all just kind of laughed it off because it seemed like an impossibility. Then when we had interviews with President last week, the Sisters brought that comment up to Sister Sainsbury, who said, "Well, why don't we make it happen!" Wow, didn't really think of that before! Well it just so happened that Sister Waite (who was here in Tuscaloosa a couple months ago when they first started teaching Nick) has a dad who is a pilot for Southwest, and is able to get buddy passes for people. The current Sisters here made a few calls, and within the day a flight had been booked for Megan to get down here so Nick could get baptized! The flight plans were made on Tuesday, the flight itself was Thursday, and the baptism was Friday morning! How crazy is that! Like just put it in the Ensign already! We almost had a hiccup because the baptism was originally scheduled on Thursday night, but due to some crazy bad weather and some bad communication between us, the Sisters, and our Branch President, things finally got worked out and Nick was baptized on Friday morning. It was awesome. We had invited William to the service, and he said he'd be there, but unfortunately he didn't show. That's okay though, because it was Nick's day and it went great. As far as I know, he has yet to tell his parents, whom I ask that y'all send a few more prayers his way because that's going to be a tough thing that will inevitably come up when he goes home to Texas for the summer. He's such a stud though, he'll be okay. 

Anyway, that's about the coolest story that I've been a part of (even though I'm not really a part of it haha). Still cool. I know that everything happens in the Lord's timing, and Nick got baptized because it was his time. He was so ready. And everything worked out perfectly for it! 

Okay, well I love y'all! Thanks for your thoughts and prayers in my behalf and those around me. Prayer works! Don't ever forget that. 

Love,
Elder Beach
#RollTide

PS - 2nd coolest thing of the week besides Nick's story, was that we got to tour the football stadium today for Pday. There's a member who works there and he showed us all around in the press boxes and locker room and everything. He also told us that we are the first missionaries that he's ever let on the field. 'Twas pretty sweet. Can't wait to come back here in a couple years and watch the Aggies spank Alabama. Haha, one can hope. Remember, prayer works. But for football? We'll see....

Tour of the stadium.

Exchanges.

Biking with Elder Erickson.

Nasty stove we saw in someone's house.

Cool truck we saw.

No Effort is Wasted

Hello everyone, hope y'all have had a good week! Ours has been pretty stellar I guess, so let me jump right in and give you a run down of the highlights. 

First off, we were able to visit with Hunter this week. About 2 weeks ago he just pulled up to us in his car and said, "Hey, you should come to my place and we'll talk." We weren't really sure what to think about that, because usually the only time someone is really excited to see us is when they want to argue about something. Though those visits are basically useless, I'm not going to lie...they're fun. So whether someone wants to argue or not, if they ask us to come over we will. We stopped by a day or two after he pulled us over, but nobody was home. We left a note on his door, but never heard anything from him again. Then the other day, we decided to stop by again. He let us right in and we sat down and talked. He's originally from Gadsden, and has lots of family in Attalla, so that was cool to make a connection there. Hunter has been in Tuscaloosa for about a year as a student at one of the community colleges here. He said that he was pretty religious in Gadsden and attended church regularly, but hasn't been able to find a church that fits him in Tuscaloosa.  He told us he had stopped us that one day a couple weeks ago just because he had seen us riding around a lot, knew a little bit of the sacrifices we make, and figured that what we had to share was pretty important. All of that was music to my ears! It was so awesome! We shared with Hunter the message of the Restoration, and invited him to read the Book of Mormon. We related the story of Joseph Smith to him, and how he was looking for a church but couldn't seem to find the right one. After we taught him about how truth has been restored, Hunter told us that he was excited to read from the Book of Mormon, and we are excited to meet with him again this week. 

William has been working overtime this week and so we were only able to meet with him once. I'm not sure exactly what he does, but I know that he works at the Mercedes plant. He told us that there are some big boss executive dudes that are coming in the the plant soon, and so everyone has been working extra so it is extra nice for them. Anyway, we did have one lesson with him and it was really good. Like I said before, William has a desire to learn unlike anyone I've seen. That being said, he struggles a lot with reading and comprehension skills, but is working hard to get better. When we sit down and explain things to him then he gets it, but if he just reads on his own then it's a struggle. Anyway, we read a chapter with him for our lesson, and he's doing a little bit better. He even made the comment to us, "I'm getting better at reading! And I feel the spirit so strong when we sit and discuss things." Man, I love William. He's a stud. We got our hands on a children's Book of Mormon, and we are going to bring it by next time we go over there to help him understand things better when we aren't around to explain it. Hopefully that will help. Anyway, we are hoping that his work schedule isn't quite so crazy this upcoming week so we can see him more. 

This week the YSA branch had a combined sacrament meeting with Birmingham, so they all went up to Bham this Sunday. As a result, we were able to attend the home ward here in Tuscaloosa for the first time since getting here. It was pretty fun, and it was good to meet some new people. We did hear one unfortunate bit of news while there. We talked to Allison Rowe about her neighbor that she was going to give a Book of Mormon to. On the day she was going to bring the Book over, her neighbors weren't home. So she put it in a bag with a note, and left it on the porch. Later, Allison found the bag and the (unopened) note back on her porch. They haven't talked since. (This was a couple weeks ago.) She was pretty sad about that, and I was too when I heard it. It's happened to me plenty of times, but it's especially sad when it's a member who is trying so hard to share the gospel with their friend and then just gets shot down like that. It's pretty disheartening. But what matters is that she tried. She did her best to share her testimony and share the things that have brought her joy. As a missionary you learn to get over rejection quickly, but when you aren't used to it, it's pretty sad. Elder Cook I believe said something really cool in his talk last week in Conference. He talked about how people are sometimes scared to do missionary work because they are afraid of losing their friends. But Elder Cook said that if we try to share it and they reject us, they will still be our friends. That was a cool thing he said, and a good comfort to people like Allison who try hard and then get rejected. If this happens to you, just keep your head up. Keep trying. You did the right thing. God is proud of your efforts. They are not wasted. 

I have a testimony of that. We can still love people, and they can still love us, even if they don't accept what we offer them. I have had, and heard of, too many experiences to show me otherwise. There are plenty of people that I have met and come to know and love who never got baptized, or maybe even came to church. Just love people. That's the most important thing. 

I love you all. Have a great week. Know that you're always in my prayers. 

Elder Beach
#RollTide

PS - We got to go the Alabama spring game this week. 'Twas pretty cool. The expected turnout was 75,000, but there were only about 30,000 there. Haha pretty disappointing, but still quite the crowd for a spring game. I look forward to going to a real game at some point in the future....

Bryant Denny Stadium before the Spring Game.

Only 30,000 people showed up for the game.  In a stadium that holds almost 100,000 it seems pretty empty!

God is Love

Hey everyone, hope y'all have had a great week. Actually, I don't hope you did. I know you did. I mean, how could you not have had a great week with General Conference as a part of it? If you feel like you didn't have a great week, please follow the council of the prophet and start studying the messages from Conference again. Studying their messages and doing our best to live the teachings found in them will make your week a great one, I promise you that. 

Our week was awesome. In addition to watching Conference, we were sworn at, cat-called, and bashed with. A solid week in the life of a missionary in a college town. Gotta love it! We also had a few other things happen, which I will devote the length of this email to instead of the formerly mentioned incidents...

This week we had our zone conference. Much of it was focused on member-missionary work. That was great, because that seemed to be one of the themes of General Conference as well. Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Cook both gave wonderful talks about how we can all be good member missionaries. (Many others mentioned things related to that topic, but theirs were my favorite). Being a missionary is not that hard. We don't have to do anything extravagant to work gospel topics into our conversations with those around us. If we are studying the scriptures regularly, and participating in "Come, Follow Me" like we should, it will not be difficult to share our experiences and our testimony with our friends. In fact, it will be very natural. Plus, it is an awesome and rewarding experience knowing that we shared something that has blessed our life with another. So let us all, as Elder Uchtdorf said, "participate in the Commission."

This week we were able to continue to teach William. Though his reading and reading comprehension skills are about those of a third-grader, he really understands things well when we sit down and explain and teach them to him. He loves meeting with us. He is learning a lot, and he is even sharing what he's learned with his co-workers. See, everyone can be a missionary! This week we have been sharing the Plan of Salvation with William, and we had the opportunity to teach him about the Atonement of Christ. The doctrine that surrounds that event is truly the most important doctrine that exists. I love testifying of the Savior and His power to heal, uplift, strengthen, forgive, and change us. He is the Savior of the World. It was awesome to be able to teach William about those things. Tad R. Callister also gave an amazing talk on this subject at Conference.

The other day as we were heading in for the night, we were stopped by a guy in our apartment complex parking lot. I don't really know the reason that he stopped us, and I regret not asking him, but we ended up talking for about 45 minutes about all kinds of stuff. I really enjoyed the visit, though I left it feeling kind of sad for this young man. There's a lot that was discussed, but I'll summarize what I can here. The gist of our conversation was this: in a manner that was not confrontatious, he told us that he has had some experiences that have led him to believe that God doesn't exist. He said that he would be open again to the idea that God did exist, if he were to be shown some type of sign - if God would speak to him. Since God has not, He can't be there. He was looking for evidence of God inside a box that God does not operate inside of. This young man told us that there are answers to many questions that he will never know, and that he can't know until the afterlife - if an afterlife even exists. He told us that he believes that he should "eat, drink, and be merry," and at the end of this life, that would be that. It was a conversation that we don't have often here in the Bible belt, and it was an unfortunate one to have. We did our very best to explain to this man our beliefs and we shared many scriptures with him in order to teach him the truth. Though he wasn't rude about the things we offered, he rejected them. We assured him lovingly that one day, he would stand before God and know that God is. That he would one day stand before God and know that God loves him. We promised him that that would be a wonderful day, but would be exponentially more wonderful if we chose to follow God now. After all, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet him. The part about this conversation that left me feeling sad for this young man, was that his decisions had already been made. He had already decided that there was no God. He had already decided that living in the world was the way to happiness. He had already made his decisions. He seemed to be at a point, like Laman and Lemuel, that he was "past feeling." I felt the spirit as we testified to him of truth, and I hope and pray that he felt some sliver of it too. I'm sure there are several lessons to be learned from that experience I had, but I want you to know biggest lesson I learned. As we ended that conversation and parted ways, and as I prayed that night, I felt love for that young man. I knew that God loved him. The Savior's words came to my mind, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Though he was making some wrong choices, and though he rejected our offer of true happiness through the Atonement of Christ, I wanted him to feel that God still loves him. Because He does. At this point in his life, this man had closed himself off to that love. However, there is nobody so far gone that the love of God and the Atonement of Christ cannot reach. God lives. We are His children. He loves us. He reaches out to us - always. When we "have ears to hear and eyes to see," we will know of those truths for ourselves. I learned of those truths more deeply the other night. It was a neat experience.

Oh, one more awesome thing that I forgot to mention last week. I don't even know if you'll know who I'm talking about because I don't remember how much I mentioned them, but whatever. Back in Montgomery lives a member family by the name of Villalobos. They are some of my favorite people I've met in this great state. There was a girl named Harley who is from Texas, but she lived with them because she was dancing in the Montgomery Ballet Company at the time. He parents weren't super on board with Harley being part of the Church, though she attended each week with the Villalobos fam. Well, a couple weeks ago Harley turned 18, and so on March 30 she got baptized! It made me so happy! It was so awesome! "Has the day of miracles ceased?" Not in the slightest.

Alrighty, I'm sure there were some more things that happened this week, but I guess that's the highlights. I hope y'all have a great upcoming week. Make sure you are on time to church this Sunday or Elder Holland might find you and slap you into next week so you can try again and do it right haha! Love y'all! Thanks for the thoughts and prayers, you're always in mine!

Love,
Elder Beach
#RollTide

Zone Conference.  Can you find me?

Upcoming Conference

Hey everyone, I hope y'all have had a great week. This one has been pretty good here in Tuscaloosa. Let me tell you about some of the highlights.

On Friday last week we were able to go to the Rowes and have dinner. They are a family that lives in Tuscaloosa but used to be in the 10th ward at home with us a few years ago. It was fun to visit with them about people and things that have been going on both here in Alabama and back home over the last 4 years or so since they moved. One awesome thing about dinner was that we learned that Allison Rowe has been sharing her testimony with their next door neighbors for the past little while. She finally decided is was time to give them a copy of the Book of Mormon, so we brought her a copy. That was so awesome that she was willing to do that. What a great example of member missionary work. It doesn't have to be huge, but just sharing something that has blessed our lives with someone, and helping them to receive those same blessings is so great. It blesses both us and them. The Rowes also gave us a lot of important information on the good restaurants to try while we are in town - if only we had the funds to try them all haha. Missionary budget allows for eating out sometimes, but not enough to try out all of the yummy local places. I guess we'll just have to hit the very best ones. 

We have continued to teach William this week. He doesn't have the greatest reading skills or comprehension abilities, so we have to take things really slow with him. He does have a desire to learn however, so that is all we can ask for at this point. This week we read a little bit of the Book of Mormon with him for one lesson, and we began teaching him the Plan of Salvation for another. The Plan of Salvation is so awesome. There are so many things that I wish people would just understand, that they would understand if they knew the Plan. It answers so many questions. Doctrinal questions and questions of the soul are answered in the scriptures as they teach us about the Plan of Salvation. Learning about and teaching about the Plan also just serves to me as another evidence that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. There are many doctrinal points which are touched on in the Bible that most people misinterpret or just plain ignore, that we understand more clearly when viewed through the light of our increased knowledge of the Plan of Salvation as revealed through Joseph Smith. Our premortal life (Jeremiah 1:5), the Atonement of Christ, salvation for the dead (1 Corinthians 15:29), the spirit world (John 5:25-28; 1 Peter 3:9; 4:6), and the kingdoms of glory (1 Corinthians 15:40-45; John 14:2) are all taught (some of them very clearly) in the Bible, but many of them are also teachings that are unique to our Church. That is a very strong evidence to me of the prophetic calling of Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the Gospel through him. Pretty cool I think. I'm just grateful for these restored truths, and the peace that they bring to our lives.

We have been working to find people to teach, and though our efforts have yielded little fruit, it has yielded some. We have been able to meet a few receptive people to teach about the Restoration of the Gospel, and share our testimonies with. One guy named Hunter actually pulled over in his car and asked us to come by his house sometime and teach him. We have planned to go by tomorrow. Situations like that seem suspicious, because it likely just means he's going to try and bash, but I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and hope that he has a sincere desire to learn. I'm always grateful when someone is just willing to let us into their home, regardless of whether they accept what we share or not. It gives me a chance to practice and improve my teaching, and share and strengthen my testimony. That is the case when we teach a lesson, regardless of whether they choose to accept it as truth. Teaching is one of my favorite parts of missionary work.

As you all know, this upcoming weekend is General Conference. It's our chance to hear from the servants, witnesses, and representatives of Christ. I'm sure y'all have heard lots of things about how to get more out of Conference (like coming up with questions, praying for the speakers, taking and reviewing notes, etc.). I don't want to give any more of that to you. I just want to share my testimony. I know that Russell M. Nelson is a prophet of God. I know that his counselors and also the Twelve are special witnesses of Jesus Christ. I know that these words which the Lord spoke are true: "Whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same." I know that the messages we will hear during Conference are the messages that God has inspired each speaker to share. I know that our questions will be answered as we prayerfully listen to their words and seek those answers. I know that Jesus Christ is the leader of His Church, and that He does so through direct revelation to those we will listen to this weekend. I hope that we all will accept the invitation to "come listen to a prophet's voice," and then continue to study his words and live his teachings. I love General Conference.

I love y'all too. I appreciate your love, support, and prayers that I know are offered daily. You're always in mine. Hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Beach
#RollTide

Having dinner and message with the Rowes, formerly from my home ward in Utah!

Me and my companion, Elder Erickson.

What a great thing to be able to video chat with my Mom, Dad and sister this week because they were on Spring Break!  Lots of fun! :)