They Love Their Football out Here in West Virginia!

Hey Y'all!  How's it going and how y'all doing?  Hope everything is all right!  Give me a shout out!

ryan.brenchley@myldsmail.net

I will be trained here in Beckley for 12 weeks and then likely stay here for another transfer or two!

{My trainer, Elder Johnson}

I'm trying to learn from my companion as best as I can. He's very good with rules, but he thinks I have a lot of knowledge and says I don't even need to be trained.  Yeah, right!

It's real nice out here. It's got a good mix of both city style and up in the "boonies", as well!  Most of the people are real nice and easy to talk to.  (Especially Football!)  I am finding my way around and learning the ropes, so I haven't completely lost my mind yet!

It was such a GOOD, BUSY week!  Notice how the two go together? :)

Monday, Sep. 15:  P-day - library in the morning for email, then Wal-Mart for groceries.  As a district, we went to the church for lunch and ping-pong!  Fun Fun!  They have a mall out here (we're not completely in the middle of nowhere) so we walked around that.  Then met one of the members, Brother Snuffer.  We talked with him and played pool.  What a interesting, old fella with plenty of interesting stories; including a great conversion story.

Tuesday, Sep. 16:  Today we went to work!  It was such a busy day!  We met with a new investigator named, Joyce.  Just like about everyone else out here, she has a strong belief in God and loves Jesus Christ.  We committed her to read the Book of Mormon; in which she seems very excited!  Then came Darrel & Jennifer (the two we thought would be at church on Sunday, but they didn't show up. :( )  This lesson, however, was great!  We had Bro. "S" there with us; he and "D" went to college together, so it was great to have a friend there!  We taught the "Gospel of Jesus Christ."  The lesson was good.  The spirit was strong, even though Bro. Snuffer and Darrel talked about their college days way back when. Jennifer really, really wants to go to church.  They both committed to come!  Then immediately after we had to run down the street to another appointment!  This one was with Civi ( a 26-year old mother of 2).  We had Sister Young there to help teach and fellowship, as well!  Civi is very faithful and very strong!  She's been through so much!  The lesson was on the Plan of Salvation and we taught about Baptism, and set her on date for Baptism, which she agreed!  WooHoo!  We look forward to helping her prepare for Baptism!  Then Sister Young had us over for dinner.  They are a solid family (4 Kids, 2 at home, one in Japan on his mission, and one in Wyoming for school).  They are a great family!

Wednesday, Sep. 17:  Started the day with district meeting.  The meeting was about using faith when setting daily and weekly goals, and then working for those goals!  Today we walked!  We only get 1,400 miles a month to drive, so in order to save miles we parked our car in Beaver, and then walked 2 miles into uptown Beaver.  We visited Sister Charla Cline and had a hard time explaining the Godhead to her.  She was kinda understanding and said she was going to try her best to make it to church this week!  After walking, we came back to Beckley to teach Sister Blackburn (less-active member) and her granddaughter twins, Mackenzie and Lindsay (both 10).  We had Sister Nicholas there, the Primary President, to tell them about Primary!  They seemed real excited about church, and they really want to be baptized. Then we visited a new investigator named, Jason.  We got to know him and answered a lot of questions about what sets our church apart from other churches.  It was really good and we really established a good relationship, and helped him get a good understanding of our church.

Thursday, Sep. 18:  Today was zone conference and specialized training.  The whole Charleston zone and Parkersburg zone (where Elder Numbers is serving) met in Charleston with President and Sister Salisbury and the AP's.  The number one thing from specialized training was "Ponder the Possibilities" and being prepared to learn.  Don't think of the constraints and the bad outcomes, but the good outcomes, when talking to someone or teaching a lesson.  For the rest of the day it was mainly just appointments getting cancelled left and right, so that meant "hitting the pavement" and tracting.  The funny thing was, no one was interested, but one of the men we'd talked to earlier, actually stopped us on our way back and offered us water, and then we had a 20 minute discussion about the church and his ties to Utah.  It was great!  So much for him "not being interested."  :)

Friday, Sep. 19:  Today we walked, and walked, and walked (like Pioneer children).  Today we walked into Shady Springs and spent the whole day there.  We taught Heather & Almeida - not sure they are interested in the church right now, but they like to have us over to talk about God.  Then right next door was another lesson with Civi.  This time her mother, Kay was there and her boyfriend, Mark, who lives with her, was also there.  Mark seemed really confused about why God would let babies die.  So, we tied that into the Plan of Salvation, and he officially became a new investigator!
**This is where I need some advice and prayers; sooner or later, we will have to teach them the Law of Chastity lesson.  I'm so nervous, so everyone back home, give me some input on how we should go about this lesson.**
Then after that lesson was over, we walked by Shady Springs High School and noticed they were having a football game that night.  Elder Johnson and I wanted to go so bad, not only to watch football, but there would be so many people there that we could talk to.  We didn't know if we could or not, so we will find out, and maybe next time!  The thing was, there were so many cars driving to the game; there had to be 3-4 miles long of cars driving to the game.  Let me tell you, they love their football out here in West Virginia.  So, we started waving at all the cars as they drove by!  We had to wave at over a thousand cars!  The great part is most of them waved back or honked!  And only one lady gave us the bird!  I'd say that's pretty good! :)  Then the Laxton's treated us to some very good Mexican food at one of the restaurants out here.  (Yeah, who knew?  Mexican food in WV?)

Saturday, Sep. 20:  Another "Service Saturday!"  This time we built the roof we took down last week!  It took from 9 to 3!  What also made this day special is we were fasting for our investigators to come to Church, but mainly Darrel and Jennifer who we missed last week.  We also had the privilege of teaching them today.  Jennifer was so determined that the only thing that would keep her from coming to church is if she was in the hospital!  Great!  Then we ran into a group of teenagers driving around and had a really good conversation with one of them named, Kasey.  He was surprised I was only a year older than him and we had a great talk about the church, but also about the Barclays Premier League.  It was so awesome to talk about soccer with someone and we connected so well!  I hope we run into him again.

Sunday, Sep. 21:  Guess what?  Darrel and Jennifer came to church!!!!!  They came and they seemed to enjoy it a lot!  I was so happy!  Fasting and praying worked!  It was so sweet!  WooHOO!  After church we taught the twins about the Word of Wisdom and committed them to keep that.  The rest of the day was just walking - to no avail with talking with anyone.  Ah well!

This was such a great week!  I'm going to do all that I can to make every week like this one!

Here’s our house – we park the car on the front lawn!  Just trying to be “hillbilly.” Haha

303 Mankin Avenue

Beckley, WV  25801

 

{Elders Morse & Carter from Beckley 1 area, who live upstairs}

 

Hope to hear from all ya!

Love, Elder Brenchley