I told y'all about a dude we met named Travis last week. He seemed to have some good potential and he told us he would love to come to church with us. After that first initial contact, we haven't been able to see him at all. He never answers the phone, ignores our texts, and either isn't home when we stop by or ignores us when we knock. We stopped by on Saturday night and left a note on his door as well as sent him a text just saying, "Hope to see you at church in the morning." He didn't come. Not sure what exactly the deal is. It's frustrating when people just ignore us. If they would just tell us that they weren't interested, I would be disappointed but we could at least know that we should move on. It takes longer to decide whether or not to move on when we just get ghosted.
We (sort of) were able to get back in contact with William this week! We called him the other day and he didn't answer but he texted us and said hello. Knowing that he can't read or text very well, we just told him simply that we missed him and asked if we could call him. He said he would call us after work. He never did. We called and texted him several times after that with no luck. I'm not sure exactly what his work schedule is like right now, but he hasn't been home when we've stopped by. I really want to get back in touch with William and resume teaching him, but it's pretty tough to do that when you can't maintain contact. I continue to pray that we'll be able to teach him.
We met some dudes this week just chilling outside at this apartment complex near ours named O.B. and Mark. We were trying to see another person in that complex but he wasn't home so we visited with them instead. They both are in their 20s and don't really go to church much, though they say they believe in God and want to do what is right. We invited them to church and they were excited to come, and they were also super excited to come to our sports night that the Northport Elders have been trying to start up. Hopefully they'll be able to make it to both and we can build a relationship with them and help them come unto Christ.
This upcoming week we have a couple of cool things going on. Tomorrow morning we are driving up to Bessemer so that our zone can meet with President and Sister Allred for an hour or so. It's weird that the Sainsburys are gone, and it's weird that we have a new mission president and basically a new mission with all of the stakes in Florida being added to our mission. I'm never going to see or meet most of them probably, but it's just odd to know about all of the changes going on. I am excited to meet the Allreds though, and I'm sure they're going to be awesome.
We also have the opportunity this week to go down somewhere near Montevallo (about an hour from here) on July 4 and help volunteer at this big event that they do. Honestly, I don't know much about it, and I don't know much about what we are going to be doing to help, but it should be fun. From what I hear, they have lots of activities for kids, parades, historical reenactments, and a bunch of stuff like that. People say that there's quite the large crowd every year. Again, I'm not really sure what we are doing to help out, but that's what we will be doing on the 4th, and I'm excited for it.
Alright, well that's some of the neat things that have been going on and that will be going on in the near future. I want to wrap up this email with a spiritual thought and then call it good for the week.
There seems to have been a big focus lately on keeping the Sabbath more holy, and making the Sabbath a delight. One of the members of our stake presidency here pointed out to us something in the scriptures that can help us to keep the Sabbath holy, and more specifically to make the sacrament more meaningful. In Exodus 12, there is a commandment to take a lamb to sacrifice as part of the passover. They are to take them lamb and bring him home with them on the 10th day, but the lamb isn't to be slain until the 14th day. Basically they kept the lamb kind of as a pet at their house for 5 days. Now, President Lewis, who was sharing this insight, asked, "What do you do when you bring home a new lamb, or a new puppy, or a new pet? You spend all of your time with it. You let it sleep in your bed with you. You give it a name. You get attached to this cute little baby animal." And then a few days after that, after their hearts get attached to this animal, they have to kill it. They have to sacrifice it. We all know that each and every one of those sacrifices performed previous to the Savior's atonement were representative of Him. And then when Jesus instituted the sacrament in Matthew 26, he replaced animal sacrifice with the bread and wine. That's what we do every single week. Instead of sacrificing a lamb, we partake of the sacrament - but the meaning is the same. So, President Lewis' suggestion to each of us, and my suggestion to each of you, is to do the following in order to keep in remembrance the importance of the Savior's sacrifice as represented by the bread and water: spend a week with the Lamb. Metaphorically take the Lamb home with you each week. Love it, get attached to it, give it a name, spend all of your time with it. And then each week when we metaphorically take our lamb to the altar, or as we literally partake of the sacrament, it will be more meaningful to us. It will become a real sacrifice. That's something I've though a lot about the past couple of weeks since that insight was shared with me. "Spend a week with the Lamb." It was a cool thought, and one I thought I'd share.
Anyway, I love y'all, I'm thankful for all of you. You're always in my prayers. I love the Savior and I love being part of His work. This is His work. He is the Christ. Have a great week.
Love,
Elder Beach
#RollTide
Last picture with the Bessemer Zone and President and Sister Sainsbury since they go home this week!
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