We had our first big snowfall of the year and got about 8-9 inches Saturday night and Sunday morning. With the snow, we also have gotten some temperatures in the negatives as well. This next week we are on bikes and the high most days is below zero, so pray that we won't freeze to death haha! Just kidding...
So this week was pretty good and we had some cool stories and some crazy stories as well! The first cool and crazy story was this guy named Ralph. We found him right after a lesson with Eleshea and we gave him a Book of Mormon. He said we could come back and we ended up having 2 lessons with him. He said he was having a tough time paying his rent so we took him a "blessing bag" (thanks mom), and when we took it to him, he opened the door and was super sad/crying. He also had a razor knife in his hand... So we went in and he said his mom just died and he was dropping some strings of profanity and it was a pretty sobering scene. I felt really bad for the guy because he basically had nothing and then his mom died. So I was pretty sad and I was crying and he was crying and Elder Gooch was like not crying at all. He was acting a little jumpy and I was like just super sad for Ralph. He had us pray with him like 5 times and I guess the one prayer I said he kept looking at us to see if our eyes were closed and Elder Gooch kept his eyes open the whole prayer and made sure Ralph didn't do anything crazy. So I'm just like bawling saying the prayer and I guess Ralph was trying to kill us with a razor blade or something. Then he started digging in his bag for something and I didn't know what it was and Elder Gooch was acting all jumpy and Ralph was about to freak out so Gooch asked for the phone and texted "We gotta go..." and handed it back to me haha, so I realized maybe we should go! So we told him we were going to go find someone to take him to church and basically ran out of the apartment and determined we would never go back to see him. So that's how that went...
We had Zone conference on Thursday and that was super fun! I got to see a lot of missionaries I hadn't seen for a while so that was fun! We also watched "Its a Wonderful Life" which was a super good movie. I have seen it once before but I thought it was dumb the first time I watched it, but I really enjoyed it this time.
We had a lesson with Ted Fors on Friday night and read the story of the brother of Jared with him out of the Book of Mormon. We taught about how we need to have faith and trust that the Lord will help us, but we have to actually do our part as well. Ted hasn't really been doing anything to get himself to church, so we talked to him about how he needs to take his meds and actually use his oxygen and stuff so he physically has strength to come to church. It was a really good lesson and he understood that he has faith, but he still needs to act on his faith. He set January 1st as his day to come to church so we are hyped.
We also had a lesson with Jeffrey on Tuesday and he opened up a lot to us about his life and stuff. We read Alma 14 with him about Alma and Amulek being in prison and having to endure trials and have faith to endure them and know that God had a plan for us. He told us how he has been struggling with what his purpose is in life and why God has kept him alive (he was in a motorcycle accident a few years ago and lost his leg). I was able to testify that God has a plan for him and that he is important and will be able to help someone in the church or just someone that is in his life. It was a really good lesson and the Spirit was super strong when we left. Unfortunately he didn't make it to church on Sunday because he had a commitment already, but he said he will be there next week for sure!
We haven't seen much of DeAndre and KeAndre because they are working so much and never answer their phone. DeAndre came to basketball with us on Wednesday and it was super fun. We had like 6 people from the ward play with us too and it was a super intense game haha. It was good to blow off some steam mid-way through the week.
Eleshea rescheduled like 4 times on us and then couldn't come to church because she was babysitting her nieces and nephews or something like that. So we are teaching her tomorrow and she said she will be at the ward Christmas party this Saturday, and also to church, so we are hoping that all works out!
We tracted in a snowstorm for 2 hours on Saturday and had a lot of success. It was pretty cool! The first door we knocked they let us right in and offered us tea, coffee and hot chocolate haha. We declined but they insisted we take a pack of hand warmers from them, so we've got some of those now. And they said we could come back and carol at their house this week! We got let in like 75% of the houses we knocked and gave away a lot of Books of Mormon and pass along cards that have the Christmas video on them. The very last door we knocked, this little kid answered and let us in and his mom came down and she thought we were Jehovah Witnesses and it was pretty funny. We told her we were Mormons and she was like, "Oh....!" Haha, it was pretty good stuff. We taught her about the restoration and she said she would come to church the next day. We also helped her jump start her car. She was actually homeless like 4 months ago but her wealthy brother sold her this nice house and 2 cars for $1.00 because he moved to Europe to get away from white collar crimes I guess haha. Not sure on the whole story. Anyways it was pretty cool!
So Sunday rolled around and it had snowed a lot, so we drove to church and it took a half hour and usually takes like 15 minutes tops. We had ward council and that was the funniest, most awkward ward council I've ever been in.So we were talking about this lady in our ward who needs a kidney transplant and her son who is in prison is doing it in march when we gets released. The YW President felt like we can't let him back in the church or anything because I guess he is a predator of sorts. So we talked about that whole thing. Then, things got weird haha. She told us we need to stop doing basketball on Wednesday nights. And we were like, "Why?" And the YM President was the one who set the whole thing up so the young men could play ball with us right after YM. She said the YW were getting distracted because Elder Gooch and I are very good looking missionaries and the YW I guess are attracted to us. So it got really weird and she was saying how she didn't want there to be a problem with us and the YW, and I was so embarrassed and Brother Nelson was like, "This is total BS. Nothing is gonna happen." And he was like, "Can't you control the YW?" Then she said they were basically drooling over the Elders on Wednesday at basketball and I was dying and thinking, "What the heck is going on?" He wasn't having any of it and said that basketball is still on Wednesday nights and everyone agreed with him that nothing was going to happen haha. She said she was worried that a situation may arise if we are in the building together and it was weird. So yeah... good times haha. She said she felt bad she said that after church and that she wasn't worried about us doing anything and we were awesome. She had good intentions and stuff so I was like, "No worries." I got to speak in church on Sunday and I gave a talk on the prodigal son. It was fun for me during the week to study that parable and also the other prodigal son as well. That's a talk by Elder Holland that is super good. So I learned a lot this week as I studied and prepared my talk. Church was super good and I love the ward so much!
This week has been really good and I'm learning that a mission is tough and is a struggle, but things always end up working out for the best. Thanks for all the support I'm receiving from home and from family and friends. I love all of you and hope your week is great!
Much love,
Elder Beach
#MavUp #10
Tracting in a blizzard.
Check out the temperature. And this is in the car! Next week we will be on bikes!
