Crazy week in college football, there were lots of top 25 teams that lost, and many more that nearly lost. However, the Aggies and the Crimson Tide both won handily, so that's all I really care about. I can't wait until Bama plays LSU. We might finally have a close game.
This week we had some ups and downs, as usual. There is a lady named Cathy that Elder Vanderhoff and I met several weeks ago. She talked about how she was a Baptist, but not a "pure Baptist." Kinda weird, but she did show some genuine interest. We tried her multiple times over the last few weeks with no luck, so Elder Lyons and I went to try her one last time on Tuesday. She didn't answer. So we walked back to our bikes at the end of the driveway, and sat there for a couple minutes trying to figure out what to do, since all of our plans had fallen through. As we sat and went through the area book looking for someone to visit, Cathy came to the door and called to us to come back up to the porch. We did, and had a great visit with her about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. There were times when she showed interest, and times where she said, "Well, I'm Baptist," and just brushed off what we told her. However, she said that she loves to study books, especially the Bible, and she said that she would read through the Book of Mormon. During our conversation, there were about 3 times when she said, "I'm Baptist." After the third one, I said to her something like this: "You know, that's a principle that I have thought about a lot lately, and something that we have discussed quite a bit - the idea that tradition trumps truth." She sat there for a bit, and then asked me to say what I had just said again. "Tradition trumps truth," I told her. "I wish that were not the case, but with many people it is." Elder Lyons and I then both testified of the Book of Mormon, of the truth it contains, and of the spirit that will bear witness to her heart of its truth as she reads. I asked her to not read the Book of Mormon in an effort to just add information to her head, but to read it in an effort to find truth. If she did, then she would come to know that it was true for herself. She committed to read, and we are going to hopefully see her again this week.
We also tried to see Kim this week, the lady that we met last week who was interested. When we went over, she said that she hadn't read the pamphlet yet and she didn't want to talk or visit with us until she had. Bummer, but we will try her again soon.
Alright, here's the story behind the title of my email. I'll try to make it short(ish). It's an odd story to explain without going into lots of detail. We were at William's house. He's a guy whom we have been teaching for a long time. He's been to church once, and our last lesson with him was last week. He knows he needs to be baptized, but he says that he needs to find the right church to do it in first. Our plan in seeing him this week was to reteach the Restoration, because he obviously doesn't understand it quite yet. So we go over to his house to do that. He wasn't feeling that well, so we were just going to stay a few minutes, see if we could do anything for him, and invite him to read the Restoration pamphlet in preparation for our next lesson. We had been there for about 5 minutes when a lady knocks on the door, and he invites her in. She is his neighbor from across the street. She walks in, sits down, and I was just thinking, "Awesome, we can teach her the Restoration too." We go back to talking to William, but like 10 seconds later she interrupts and she says to us, "Isn't it a little late for y'all to be out visiting people?" I responded, "Well, it's only 6 PM. People don't usually want to talk to us after dark, but we still have some time until then." Then we go back to talking to William.
Again, like 10 seconds later, she says to us, "Will you two leave so that we can talk?" I told her that we were on our way out (which was the truth), we just wanted to talk to William for about 1 more minute. So we proceed to try and talk to him.
A third time we get interrupted by this lady. She says, "Aren't you being a little rude?! I asked you to leave, and you haven't. I assume that you represent a Christian church, and this is the way you act?!" I was baffled. I really wanted to just start yelling at her because she was the one being rude, but I knew that I couldn't. I said, "Alright, we're gonna get going, but we'll stop back by sometime soon."
"No you won't!" she yells at us. "I'll call the police!" Again, I was baffled. I don't know what her purpose was in doing this, but it was just odd. I said to her, "Okay, there's no reason to do that. We are leaving, and we'll be back another time."
She yells at us again that she will call the police on us if we do. So I turned to William and said, "William, would it be alright if we stop by again?" He said yes, which just made the lady even more mad haha. She was just glaring at us and yelling at us, even as we thanked William for letting us in for a few minutes, invited him to read the Restoration pamphlet before we came back, and we told him we would call him before we stopped by again. He said that would be fine, and we left. As we rode down his driveway, there were two guys on the driveway of the house across the street (the house that the lady had come from). I called to them, "Hey, how are y'all doing?" Neither of them said a word, but they just glared at us both. I laughed and said, "Alright, y'all have a good night!" It was great, but the whole experience was just so odd. I mean, a lady literally walked into a house that she did not own - a house that I have been to about a dozen times with no interruption - and kicked us out, threatening to call the police if we came back. And she likely had the guys at her house ready to come in and drag us out if we didn't leave. Crazy! Haha I'm so excited to go back there and teach William, whether this lady shows up or not. He has lots of potential to progress, he just needs to have a few things click first, and reteaching the Restoration will definitely help that to happen. We are going to take a member with us next time we go.
Alright, back to good news instead of bad. Daniel is ready for baptism this week. We finished teaching him everything, and so this week will just be follow-up, and administrative/logistical stuff, such as filling out his baptismal record and doing his interview. We are going to keep close tabs on him this week so he doesn't get cold feet. He shouldn't, but at zone conference this week we talked about how somebody's most difficult days in their conversion process is the 10 days before their baptism and the 10 days after. That's when Satan works on them really hard, so we are going to keep up with Daniel to help dispel the darkness that will inevitably try to creep into his life.
Speaking of zone conference, we had that last Thursday. It was definitely a big help. In Attalla, we have a festival type thing going on this week, and we are going to be doing a family history booth at it. I really didn't know what to expect or how it would work, but one of the themes for ZC was how to use family history better in our proselytizing. It was a big help, and will be especially helpful for us this Saturday at the booth. It was also great to see some of my homies from the zone, and to share stories and just spend time together. I always love doing that.
One other story that I'm going to ask a little advice and help on. We taught gospel principles on Sunday, and we talked about temples. Daniel, as well as Rena Gray (a member who is coming back into activity) were present. Both of them have spouses and families who are not interested in the restored gospel. So the question inevitably came up, "How can I be sealed, or how can I have an eternal family, if my spouse doesn't do what is necessary for that to happen?" Now, I have thought a lot about that over the last couple of weeks because I knew Daniel would ask about that when we taught about temples. The only answer that I can think of is the answer we gave them - that while there are blessings that may be delayed, there will not be any blessings denied to us based on the decisions of another person, provided that we do our part to receive those blessings. I don't know how it's all going to work out, but I know that if we live Celestial lives, we will receive all of the blessings of the Celestial Kingdom (including an eternal family), regardless of how our spouse or our family lives. I hope that that was accurate, but I just wish I had more information. I'm going to do some homework, and I would just ask that if any of y'all who read this email have any more information on this topic, send it my way. Thanks!
Well, this week was a good week. Still trying our best to find new people to teach. People like Daniel and Ruby give me hope that those prepared people do exist, we just need to find them or they need to find us! It's my hope and prayer that that will happen.
Love y'all! Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers! Know that you're in mine. Have a good week!
Elder Beach
#RollTide
#7-0
Zone Conference. Can you find me?
I love spending time with my mission buddies at conferences!
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