Week 1 in Greenville

Hello to all my family and friends, I hope this letter finds you well.

Like I said last week, things are tough down in Greenville.  There were only two major people that they have been working with down here.  Ava, a 9 year old whose parents are less active, just got baptized last week which is pretty awesome.  However, that means that we probably won't be quite as much of a part of things once new member lessons are done and all that.  Also there was a lady named Peggy who was pretty solid and thinking a lot about baptism, and then she just randomly moved away a few weeks ago.  So this week we have been doing a lot of service, and a lot of finding.  

The branch here is pretty fun.  There are about 35 people who came to church on Sunday, and about 25 of them are over age 55 haha.  There are like no young families.  There are only a handful of youth, and that's about it.  It's not necesarily a bad thing, there's just a lot of age and experience here (I'll put it that way haha).

One of the guys in the branch is Brother Waggoner.  He is like almost 70 years old, and I guess about a year ago he decided, "Hey, I want to build my own house."  So that's what he did.  He's been working on it for quite some time now.  We went and helped him put up the walls and some other stuff this week out in the 95 degree humid heat.  It was pretty fun and pretty sweaty.

On Saturday we went with another member named Randy up to Montgomery to help him clean out his Mom's house/yard.  She passed away a while ago, and her place is a wreck, so Randy has to deal with it.  We basically unloaded a couple of sheds in the yard full of junk that had been there for decades, and took it to the dump.  It was quite the adventure.

On Sunday we had Ava's confirmation, since she got baptized last Tuesday.  That was a pretty cool thing to be a part of on my first Sunday here.  We also had testimony meeting, and it was about the quietest testimony meeting ever, which was not a bad thing.  Everyone that bore testimonies did a really good job, but there were a couple of points during the meeting where there was about 3-5 minutes of silence before someone got up next.  I know some people sometimes get up and they're like, "Well, it was silent for 10 seconds so I had to get up..."  Just so y'all know, you don't have to do that.  If you feel like you need to get up, go right ahead.  However, a minute or two of silence during testimony meeting is one of the best things sometimes.  I remember in Brother Orr's seminary class last year, he would always leave a minute or two for testimony meeting, every single day.  Sometimes, we just sat in silence for a minute and that was fine.  Sometimes, only one or two people would get up and then we would sit in silence for a minute, and that was fine, too.  I like it when there is a minute of silence during testimony meeting so I can pause and think and ponder.  So that's just my bit of advice for the week: If you need to go bear your testimony, please do so.  But don't ever be afraid of silence.  It's often a good thing.

Well, sorry about the short-ish email, but it was a short-ish week, and nothing super major happened.  We've been working and sweating a lot, and we will continue to do so.  Thanks for the prayers, thoughts, notes, emails.  They're always great to get.  I'm excited to be here, and I'm having a good time with Elder Kapcsos.  It's fun, just hard.  Love you guys.  Hope y'all have a great week.

Love, 

Elder Beach

#RollTide

PS - If y'all didn't get a chance to watch President and Sister Nelson's devotional last night (June 3), go watch it.  It was really good.  If you did watch it, make sure to do the 5 things they invited us to do.  Now go out and gather Israel!  Love you guys!

Working and sweating in Alabama!

Doing as much biking as we can to save miles on the car.

Southern babies.

We come across some interesting things in the South!

Saying good-bye to the Villalobos family.  I am going to miss them!

Transfers

Hey everyone, everything's going pretty good here in Alabama, and I hope the same is true for y'all wherever you may be.

First off, just wanna thank everyone for the birthday wishes this week.  It was great to hear from many of you, and to receive notes and gifts from you.  Thanks to Mom, Dad, Addi, Jayden, Garrison, Grandma, Grandpa, as well as aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, and friends who took time to send an email, write a note, or something of the sort.  Also just a special shoutout to Addi for the cool sock tie, and to Jayden for the Chick-fil-a gift cards.  Both are being put to good use. All of your thoughts made it a great birthday, and hey, I only have one more left before I come home haha!

Also, we got transfer calls this week, and I'm going to be leaving Montgomery (sort of).  Technically I'm not really supposed to know where I'm going until I get to transfer meeting on Wednesday, but today the APs sent our district this huge long text telling us in detail what the best way for each of us to get to transfer meeting is while using the least amount of miles.  Anyway, in that text I was told that I'm going to Greenville (which is just south of Montgomery, and actually in the same district) so I am actually not going to transfer meeting.  I'm going to be companions with Elder Kapcsos, whom I went on exchanges with a couple weeks ago.  I look forward to my time there, even though it has historically been one of the toughest areas to work in.  (Many people make jokes about how disobedient missionaries get "banished" to Greenville haha).  It's a struggle down there, but we're gonna go to work and see where it takes us.

We went on a couple of exchanges this week with Carter Hill.  I did one with Elder Robins and one with Elder Mateus.  They were both pretty fun.  When I was with Elder Mateus we were walking up the street and there were some kids out playing football, so we joined in and played with them for a while.  After 15 minutes or so, we left to go stop by some people.  One of them was a less-active guy whom I had met a couple times before.  His is a weird situation.  He lives with his ex-wife and her new husband in their home.  He doesn't do much except lay in bed all day every day, and his little chihuahua, Jasmine, just lays on top of him.  He wears one of those hospital gowns that I don't think has ever been washed.  Jasmine literally just lays on his chest or his shoulder, and eats all of his leftover crumbs and eats stuff out of his beard.  It's pretty gross.  Anyway, we stopped by to see how he was doing, and it happened to be his birthday!  We wished him happy birthday, made sure people were still bringing him the sacrament each week, and asked if he was keeping up with his scripture reading.  Everything seemed to be going pretty well, so that was good.  We shared a scripture and left before Jasmine could attack us haha.

After we left his house, we were walking back to our bikes and the kids that we were playing football with earlier found us.  There were 3 of them who were each like 12 years old, and literally all they talked about was stuff that no 12 year old (or really anyone) should ever be talking about.  I was like, bro where are your parents?  These kids literally followed me and Elder Mateus around for like 20 minutes, and I was pretty sick of them by the end of it.

We taught Robert again this week a couple of times.  We reviewed the Restoration with him, and he had actually read through the pamphlet that we left.  We talked about that, as well as the importance of the Book of Mormon.  For the most part, Robert actually seems to understand what is going on.  He's excited to learn.

There have been a lot of people we have dropped this week.  I always hate dropping people, because I feel like everyone has potential.  When we drop them, we are basically making the decision that they aren't ready to receive the gospel yet.  It's a hard thing to do, but I guess when people aren't ready, they just aren't ready.  It's one thing for people to actually listen and comprehend what we tell them, and then decide to reject it.  It's another thing entirely for them to just have no clue what's going on when we teach them the Restoration.  I don't know what to do about it.  All I know is that I 'm going to keep telling everyone about the wonderful truths that I have come to know for myself - That Jesus is the Christ, that he lived and died and lived again for each of us, that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that the Church of Jesus Christ is again on the earth, and that these truths will bring more happiness to all who discover them than anything else in the world.  I know those things are true, and I'm grateful for the chance I have to share those truths with others, regardless of whether or not they choose to listen.  I'm just going to keep praying that they do, because when we find someone who does it makes everything worth it.  There's not a whole lot of better feelings than when someone accepts a baptismal invitation (or better yet, tells you they want to be baptized without us asking); or someone tells you this phrase: "How can you read the Book of Mormon and say it's not true?"; or when you see a couple of kids get baptized by their dad, and you get to watch the joy on the faces of each of them, as well as many members who have worked for years to get them to that point.  Missions suck sometimes, but they're also filled with some of the greatest experiences anyone could ever have.

Alright, I love you guys.  Thanks again for all of the birthday wishes.  I look forward to going down to Greenville, and I'll let y'all know how that goes next week.  Talk to you later.  

Love, 

Elder Beach

#RollTide

#BanishedToGreenville

Happy birthday in Alabama!

The Relief Society President made me a lemonade cake, and brought a shrimp ring and cocktail sauce to church for me for my birthday.  Southern hospitality is the best!

Exchanges and Such

Hey everyone, this week had its ups and downs but it was pretty good so I'll give y'all the highlights.  They are as follows:

On Tuesday and Wednesday we had exchanges with Greenville, Elder Henrie and Elder Kapcsos.  On Tuesday Elder Kapcsos and I went to visit a guy who we had made an appointment with a few days before.  His name is Bob, and he is an older guy who wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon.  He really just wanted it to learn more about our beliefs, he had absolutely no intention of changing or adding to his.  Anyway, we went to go see him, and he just started asking a bunch of questions about a bunch of different things, and we just answered them for him.  One thing that he asked that many people ask is something along these lines:  "Well y'all believe that you are saved by works."  It's more of a statement than a question, but it's brought up a lot.  It's something that a lot of people get confused about.  Here's the scoop - There is absolutely nothing we can do on our own to earn celestial glory.  We NEED a Savior.  That's why He came to the Earth.  We cannot do it on our own.  Grace is absolutely necessary.  However, He cannot make us go to the Celestial Kingdom.  We cannot just do nothing.  There are certain things that we must do, which include making and keeping covenants, and living "by every word that proceedeth forth out of the mouth of God."  We must live the Gospel.  Grace and works are both necessary, and anyone who fully understands the scriptures will understand that.  Just a little Southern misconception that I thought I would clear up right quick.  You can't just pray once and "ask Jesus to save you" and then do whatever else you want to in life and expect to go to Heaven because you're "saved."  There's a little more to it than that.  We explained that, and a lot of other things, to Bob, and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon.  Also as part of our exchange we went down to Greenville so that I could give a baptismal interview to a 9-year-old that they have been teaching.  Her parents are both less-active members, so she was never baptized.  Between her and the Cockrells, I'm starting to see that part member families are the place to be to find solid baptismal candidates to teach.

On Thursday and Friday we had exchanged with the Zone Leaders in Prattville.  I went with Elder Jacob (whom I had exchanged with before when he was the DL in Montgomery) and we had a pretty good time.  The only thing that kinda sucked was we biked a LOT.  I haven't been biking a whole lot, only every once in a while.  But when I was with Elder Jacob, like all of our appointments and stop bys fell through so we basically just biked from house to house to house and that's it haha.  My butt was pretty sore for a while haha.

Friday night we had dinner with the Cockrells.  Now, these were some different Cockrells, so let me explain.  Randy Cockrell is the father of Morgan and Megan.  Randy has an older brother named Mike.  Mike somewhat recently married a nonmember named Janet.  Mike and Janet are who we had dinner with.  Mike and Janet are also 2 of the people in our crazy Gospel Principles class last week, and Janet was one of the hecklers.  However, dinner was actually very good, and we had the chance to clear up a lot of confusion with her.  I guess she and Mike have lots of gospel discussions about certain topics.  Janet is pretty stubborn in her own souther-baptist-turned-non-denominational beliefs, but she likes hearing what other people believe.  She may not be ready for change right now, but we and Mike will keep working with her on that.  For Gospel Principles on Sunday, we also decided to just teach the Restoration, so that people could understand why we believe what we believe.  Our church teaches a lot of unique doctrine.  True as it is, it is often misunderstood by outsiders, so we decided to clear those things up.  Unfortunately, there was nobody in the class this Sunday that was there last Sunday.  So though we had probably the best gospel principles class ever, it didn't reach all of the ears that it needed to.

On Saturday we went out to Tuskegee and we met Phyllis who I told you about a couple weeks ago.  She moved from Georgia and the missionaries there told us that she was super solid and to go visit her.  Well, we called her Friday and told us that we could come by, but she wasn't sure if she would be home, so she told us to call again Saturday morning before we came.  We called her like 4 times, left 2 messages, and she even called us back in the middle of that but somehow we missed the call.  Anyway, she knew that we would be out there and would try to stop by.  So we went to stop by even though we hadn't really been able to make a solid appointment with her.  She lives way out in the boonies, but we eventually got there and she was home.  We pretty much just got to know her and talked about her experience with the church and the missionaries in Georgia.  It went pretty well, but we were kinda just struggling to think about getting her a ride to church.  There are literally 3 active members in Tuskegee, and we were unsure as to whether they would be willing.  Anyway, we leave Phyllis' house and like 10 minutes later she texts us and says something like, "Sorry Elders, my mom is pretty mad that you guys just showed up unannounced and I don't want to anger her.  It's probably not a good idea that you come by any more while I am here.  It's kind of scary."  I was like what the heck?  Phyllis is literally like almost 60 years old and her mom is like in her 80s.  Plus we met her mom when we were there and she wasn't mad at all at us.  We just told Phyllis to keep reading the Book of Mormon, and let us know if she needs anything or if her mom changes her mind.  It was kind of a bummer to get dropped like that, but it is what it is.

Sunday we were tracting for a bit, and we met a guy named Robert.  He let us into his home and we were able to share the Restoration with him.  We have another appointment with him on Tuesday to see how his reading has been going, so that's good.  After we got into Robert's house, literally nobody wanted to talk to us, so Elder Tyrrell and I invented a new strategy to knocking doors.  It's called "Aggressive Tracting."  We have been taught that when we are tracting, we always should talk past the first "no" and then if they say no again we can leave.  But on Sunday we just decided to talk past every single "no" that we were given haha.  Obviously if people say no a couple of times they aren't just going to change their mind, so we just would keep talking and talking and talking, getting as much teaching and as much truth in as we possibly could until we either couldn't any more or they just shut the door on us.  It was one of the more entertaining things I've done while knocking doors haha.  Aggressive Tracting was pretty funny.

Well, that was pretty much our week.  Oh, also I heard some awesome news this week!  Do y'all remember Daniel Cantu from Scottsboro?  He is a Lakota Indian and his real Indian name is Two Blades Dear Man.  Anyway, his wife Aimee is a member, and Elder Marshall and I began teaching him way back when.  Well, Aimee messaged me a few days ago on Facebook and told me that old Two Blades is getting baptized this week!  That's pretty cool, and I'm pretty pumped for them up there.  I hope to hear the same news about Deana some day, too.  

Alright, love you guys!  The work is tough here in Montgomery, but I'm enjoying it.  I know the things we teach are true, and they are necessary for true happiness.  I love sharing them with others.  Thanks for all of your prayers.  Talk to y'all again next week.

Love, 

Elder Beach

#RollTide

#AgressiveTracting 

#TwoBladesIsGettingDunked

Trying on all the latest fashions for fun.

Exchanges, and playing a little whiffle ball in the Relief Society room

Doesn't the tag make this shirt more appealing?

We went to help a guy work on his house, but he wasn't there, so we just looked around.

Good ole Southern cooking!

Helping out at the zoo.

We love playing with the kids we find!

"False Doctrine"...wait!...I mean "Gospel Principles"

Hello everyone, for those that I did not converse with on Mother's Day, here's a recap of the week:

We went over to Patrick's place last Tuesday for our appointment and he wasn't home, so that didn't happen.  However, we stopped by a few days later and he was out on his porch, so we stopped to talk to him.  It wasn't a good use of time because he was completely hammered.  Drunk as could be.  Not sure if he remembers our visit at all.  Anyway, he told us that he has read a few pages of the Book of Mormon, and that he was so excited to come to church again and come to the Cockrell's baptism on Saturday (he didn't come to either).  Anyway, we couldn't really even talk to him because he would just interject the whole time and say stuff like, "Let's just talk about Jesus!"  We were like, "Yeah, that's what we're doing bro, but you keep talking."  Anyway, not a good use of the 10 minutes we were there.  At the end he asked us to basically confess all of our sins to him and it was really weird.  Haven't seen him since.  

On Friday we met a dude tracting name Jerandum (or J'Random - I don't know) who didn't seem super interested, but he told us we could come back on Saturday.  So Saturday night we stop by and he is home, so we start talking to him about some stuff and end up teaching him the first lesson.  We also gave him a Book of Mormon, set up a return appointment, and he said that he was really excited to read, and that he would be at church next Sunday.  I look forward to seeing where it all goes.

On Saturday we had Morgan's and Megan's baptisms. The service was actually really good.  Their dad baptized them. He is really struggling with his health (he basically has terminal cancer) and so he isn't very strong right now.  So Brother Lamb, their home teacher and longtime friend, went into the font with them and so he and Brother Lamb basically both baptized Morgan and Megan together.  Bishop Lloyd, another one of the Cockrell's family's close friends, gave a really good talk at their baptism as well.  It was very apparent that he has seen their family come a long way over the last few years, and everyone was just so happy.  It was so cool to be a part of it.  They are truly taking steps to becoming an eternal family, and that's awesome.  President and Sister Sainsbury came to the service as well, and they told us that they were going to 6 baptisms that day.  That's pretty good for our mission in one weekend, so that was awesome, too.

What wasn't awesome was our Gospel Principles lesson on Sunday haha.  I've told y'all about Brother Chiu and his "Chiu-theories."  Well, he is out of town this month, but the lesson was still by far the most "Chiu-theory"/deep/false doctrine filled lesson ever.  I won't say a whole lot about it, but we were talking about the Creation.  One of the headings in the manual is "Jesus Christ created the Earth."  Immediately there were people who were like, "No, God created the Earth."  So we explained all of that very simply, that Jesus created the earth under God's direction, so both are technically correct.  Then we had a bunch of people go off about how they believe in the Trinity, and someone asked if God was a "biological life-form", and then somehow Mother in Heaven was brought up, and pretty much everything we said was received by someone in the room with a head shake and a, "No, I don't believe that."  I just felt like saying, "Well, if you don't believe what we are teaching then you believe false doctrine.  The conception of the "Trinity" was imagined up and created by a group of uninspired men.  True doctrine, which we have just explained to you, was revealed by God Himself to His Prophets, both ancient and modern.  If you are going to come to a church that teaches truth, and then just proceed to argue and tell us you don't believe it, either 1) Open your heart and mind enough to understand and recognize true doctrine when it is being taught, or 2) Please leave the class."  Now, I apologize for the rant.  None of that was actually said, but that's what I wanted to say by the end haha.  There were some crazy people in there.  We did our best to salvage it, and we had a couple of members in there who helped out a bit, but all in all it was just a blasted lesson.  People were all over the place haha.

Well, the highlight of the week was talking to Mom and Dad and the fam yesterday.  It was pretty fun to see y'all and talk for a bit.  Just think, only 7.5ish more months until we get to do it again!  haha

Oh, forgot about one thing.  We got a referral for a guy named Yiliu on Saturday.  He is from China, has been in the States for 4 years, and just moved to Montgomery from Virginia like 3 days ago.  We called the guy who sent the referral, and he told us that Yiliu was baptized just last week up in Virginia.  That was one of the more odd referrals I've received.  Anyway, we met him Saturday evening and got him a ride to church Sunday, so that was awesome.  Funny thing about Yiliu is that he rented a house that is in the hood.  He didn't realize that when he looked at the place online, and only found out when he got here the other day.  The place is like 1/2 a mile from the office that he is doing an internship at, but he says he has to call an Uber to come get him.  He is genuinely scared to leave his house.  I kinda feel bad for him, but it's kinda funny at the same time.  Obviously I wouldn't be walking around after dark, but I just don't feel unsafe in most places.  His house is definitely in the hood, but it's far from the worst I've seen.  I'm sure he'll be fine.  Yiliu is a cool guy and we are going to have the chance to give him the new member lessons while he is here, so that's cool.

Alright, love you guys.  Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.  It's so good to hear from so many people that we are being prayed for.  That's one of my favorite things.  Alright, love y'all.  Talk to you next week!

Love, 

Elder Beach

#RollTide

The Cockrell's baptism!

Getting ready for the baptism.

It's heating up in Alabama!

If you can't have a crawfish boil, then at least have a shrimp fest!

Crawfish Boil!

Hello everyone, I hope y'all are doing well and have had a good week.  We had a pretty good week, and here are a few of the highlights...

Last Sunday when we were at church, there was a guy named Patrick who just walked in off the streets (which happens fairly regularly).  Several of the members recognized him, and we came to learn that he has been walking in to church every couple months or so for like the last 2 years.  He has shown up drunk before, asking for money, etc., and so some people were less than thrilled to see him.  However, this time he was pretty normal and there was one member who kind of took Patrick under his wing and they stayed together throughout all of church.  We talked to Patrick and got his info, and made an appointment to teach him on Saturday.  We went over and taught him the Restoration, gave him a Book of Mormon, and invited him to read and to pray and to join us again at church.  He told us that he would.

He did come to church again yesterday, and actually participated in Gospel Principles, and seemed to actually enjoy being there at church.  Some members gave him a ride home after, and everyone was pretty nice to him at church.  We still feel like his main motivation in coming to church is to get money, but as long as we can slip some gospel stuff in there - teach him and help him to feel the spirit - that's alright with me.  I'm hoping that he can get helped out financially a little bit, but ultimately we want for him what we want for anyone.  To help them out spiritually by helping them come unto Christ.  We have another appointment with Patrick this week, so we'll see how it goes from here.

The Cockrells came to church Sunday!  And Sister Cockrell even bore her testimony!  It was awesome!  We also talked to them and to Brother Lamb a lot last week about getting all of the logistical things figured out for the kids' baptisms (like when lessons need to happen so that we can cover everything, and like giving them enough time to fully understand the importance of what they are doing, and all that jazz).  Morgan and Megan were originally going to be baptized on May 5, but we decided that that was going to be a little bit too quick.  Their baptism is now set for this Saturday, the 12th, and they will definitely be ready for it.  We had lessons with them last Wednesday, as well as yesterday.  They are both just soaking it all up, and are so much fun to teach.  We are going to finish the last lesson with them this Wednesday, have their baptism interview on Friday, and the baptism Saturday.  Everyone is super excited.  We were talking in Elder's Quorum about their family (as part of our first Sunday discussion thing).  We just told everyone that their baptisms were this week and we invited everyone out to support them and all that.  One of the members who has really been involved with the Cockrells for the last several years spoke up and just talked about how awesome it was that Morgan and Megan were getting baptized.  He spoke briefly about the difficulties their family has had, and the long road that it has been to get to this point.  It was pretty amazing, and it made me even more happy and more excited for them.

I told y'all last week about Brenda and Tiffany whom we met tracting.  We taught them the Restoration (twice) and they seemed pretty excited to learn more.  Then a couple of days ago we went to go stop by.  As we pulled up in the car, their door was open and their lights were on.  As we got out of the car and walked up their sidewalk, the door shut.  We sat on their porch for a good couple of minutes knocking and ringing the doorbell - nothing.  We might stop by one more time, but in a situation like that we pretty much know they don't want us back.  I really just wish people would tell us why they don't want to talk to us - no matter how lame the excuse is.  I would way rather have that than just a shut door and no answer.  *Nacho Libre voice* "But you know, whatever."  Everyone has their agency.

Saturday last week was pretty bomb.  The zoo had their annual service day, where a bunch of people just show up and do all the work that their understaffed employment force didn't do during the year.  We all just got put into groups and went to work on stuff.  There were like 30 people from the Air Force there volunteering, and we were in their group.  They all just were given chainsaws, shears, and trimmers with which to destroy some hedges that hadn't been trimmed in years.  Elder Tyrell and I had the job of picking up all of their clippings.  So we spent like 2.5 hours just driving the trailer around, picking up hedge after hedge after hedge, driving the trailer over to the dumping spot, dumping it all, and then doing it over and over again.  It was definitely the most manual labor that I have done in my many hours of zoo service haha.  But that's alright, because it got our appetites up for the highlight of the week...

Crawfish boil!  Last week the Wright family invited us out to a HUGE crawfish boil near their house.  Sources say the amount of crawfish at this event were upwards of 3 tons.  Yeah, that's over 6 thousand pounds of crawfish.  It was pretty sweet.  Elder Tyrell and I both made the goal that we would eat 150 each.  In all honesty, we didn't keep track.  However, I am not being unrealistic in telling you that the estimated final count was actually between 250-300 each.  We ate A LOT.  Every family/group that was there kind of had their own pop up tent that they sat at and ate.  However, the cool thing was that there were also these tables that they would just dump buckets full of crawfish and people would just stand around the tables and then go to town.  So what we did for a while was stand around those tables and eat and talk to people.  Definitely the most creative contacting I've ever done haha.  Making solid contacts was a little difficult because there were a lot of drunk people, but it was still good to talk to folks about the gospel as we sat there and pounded crawfish.  Definitely the highlight of the week!

This week we also got a referral from some missionaries in Georgia for a lady who moved into our area recently.  We called them to get a little bit more information from them about this lady.  Her name is Phyllis, and she seems to be a pretty solid investigator.  They told us that she LOVES missionaries, and that she has been taught several lessons, has been to church a couple of times, and is thinking about baptism.  She does have a few Word of Wisdom issues, but if someone's testimony is in the right place, those things are far from impossible to overcome.  She sound pretty awesome, right?  Well here's the issue - she lives in Tuskegee, which is literally 45 minutes away.  Mission leadership out here has really been cracking down on miles.  In all honesty, if Phyllis turns out to be that solid, and with that much potential, I'm going to pretty much ignore all the miles we might rack up to visit with her.  We'll see how it goes after our first visit or two.  I know we are going to be out that way on the 19th, so that might be the first time we meet her in person.  It's real tough to teach people that are so far away, so I'm not sure how it will all work out yet, but we'll see in the coming weeks.  I'm excited to meet her.

Well, that was pretty much our week.  I'm looking forward to skyping home this weekend!  Can't believe it's been 5 months since we did it last time.  Days are long and weeks are short I guess (and months are shorter?  I dunno).  Anyway, I love you guys, and I'm so thankful for your love, prayers, notes, and support.  Love y'all

Elder Beach

#RollTide

#300Crawfish

Nothing like a good Southern crawfish boil!

Happy Star Wars Day and Cinco de Mayo this week!

My week in Alabama!

Short Week, Good Week!

Hey everyone back home, this is going to be a short and sweet email, given that this was a short and sweet week - Thursday to Monday.

Obviously last week we got to go to the temple.  It was so awesome.  I love going there and it's always a great experience.  I love going and learning there.  There is always something to learn in the temple, no matter how many times you have been.  Go often!  It's awesome.

This week we met again with a lady named Carrie that we met last week.  We visited with her on Saturday, and brought some members with us.  The members (the Ladners) were going to give Carrie a ride to church on Sunday, so we took them over to meet Carrie.  We had a pretty good lesson with her, and we talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon and also what to expect at church.  She was pretty excited to come.  However, go figure, the Ladners came to church Sunday morning and told us that Carrie wasn't ready to go and wasn't planning on coming that day.  I've seen this happen several times, but it does not get any less frustrating.  People literally tell us the day before that they are coming to church (and we even get them a ride that shows up to their house to bring them) and then they flake.  Whatever, we still love them and want to help them.  I just wish that they wanted to help themselves, too.

That same day we took the Ladnerss to go se Barbara.  Remember her?  She was pretty solid a few weeks ago and then kind of just fell off the map.  Well, we went to go see her and she was home and we had a lesson with her.  She said she had been reading the Book of Mormon a little bit, and wanted to come to church.  She is busy the next couple weekends, but she should be coming to church in a few weeks.  That's pretty cool.  Hopefully she'll continue to read the Book of Mormon and we can help her to progress and learn.  It should be good!

We met a couple of ladies this week tracting named Brenda and Tiffany whom we taught the Restoration to on their porch.  We gave them each a copy of the Book of Mormon, and we made a follow-up appointment for the next day.  We basically retaught them the Restoration because they didn't get it very well, but by the end of our second visit, Brenda understood it for the most part.  We really focused with her on the Priesthood and its necessity.  She seemed to understand it by the end of the lesson.  We're going to see them again this week (hopefully).  

There is another lady named Virginia whom Elder Furgeson and I met and taught a little a few weeks ago.  We haven't seen her in a few weeks, and so Elder Tyrell and I stopped by this week.  One of the first things she said to us when we walked up was, "I have an issue with Joseph Smith."  We asked her to elaborate.  She said, "Well, he's not in the Bible.  So I just can't believe that he's a prophet?"  Oh boy, here we go.  Well, I asked her a couple of questions that I have often asked people.  1) Do you believe that God worked through prophets in the past (Abraham, Noah, Moses, etc.)?  2) Do you believe that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, as the Bible so declares?  3)  Does it not make sense that God still works with prophets today?  Most people don't know how to respond.  Virginia just said that prophets ended when the Law of Moses was "done away with" when Christ came.  In Preach My Gospel, it says to respond to objection with the Book of Mormon, so that's what I did.  I asked her if she had read the Book of Mormon at all, to which she responded "no."  I just told her that we could show her all throughout the Bible evidences that God works with prophets, and that Jesus Christ established His church.  We could show her the correct organization of the Church, and we could show her that the Apostasy happened, and that the Restoration was foretold.  Yes, we could show her all of that.  However, the most convincing evidence of all of this is in the Book of Mormon.  We invited her (like we invite everyone) to read, ponder, and pray about the Book of Mormon.  For if it is true, and millions now have testified that it is, then Joseph Smith is truly a prophet, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is exactly what it claims to be - the Lord's Kingdom on Earth.  That's one of my favorite testimonies to bear, because I know without a doubt that it is true.  I also know that any and all who read, ponder, and pray about the Book of Mormon with the intent to know that it is true, will come to know that it is.  What a great promise!  Anyway, Virginia asked us to give her a week to read, so hopefully we will see her again soon.

I told y'all about the Cockrells last week.  Well, they didn't show up to church on Sunday.  Not sure why.  I don't really want to delay their baptism if we don't have to, because they have been to church many times before.  However, I want them to understand the importance of the covenant they are entering into before they actually do it.  I don't want anyone to make covenants when they are unprepared to do so.  That doesn't help anyone.  We do have appointments with them on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, so I hope that all goes well.

Alright everyone, that's all for this week.  There was a little more to it, but those are the major points.  I love y'all, and I'm so thankful for each of you who take time to read these letters, to pray for me and the people I work with, and to show me such great love and support.  You're always in my prayers, and I'm thankful to know that I am in yours.  Love you guys!

Love,

Elder Beach

#RollTide

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Temple trip!

Only in Alabama!

Elder Tyrell!