September 27

Hello family and friends! I love you all. Being in a branch is definitely different than a ward. Let. Me. Tell. You.

Well, actually, first I'll tell a little story about my first day here. Transfers take place on Tuesday mornings and are all supposed to take place before noon so we can be back to work. I was out here before then, and so we went to do a little bit of tracting. When it was about lunch time, we were driving to a member's house to go eat our lunch (which meals by the way here are tricky - we can't really go back to our apt. because everything is so spread out so we have to just bring food or buy it unless a member feeds us). On the way Elder Rice pulls over at this gun shop and says he wants to run in real quick and see if they have a gun. The gun shop recently opened up and said they had an AR-15 that he wanted to check out. We go inside and I'm looking at some stuff when this guy at the desk stands up and says, "You guys Jehovah's Witnesses?" This guy has a beard, mustache, and a mohawk/mullet thing. Elder Rice was like, "Nah man, we're Mormons." The guys face tightens up and he says, "Even worse!" He pulls out a handgun from his side and cocks it while looking right at us and says, "I think ya'll need to leave right now."

I was pretty nervous at this point and said, "Alright sir, we'll be leaving now." I turned to Elder Rice and told him we need to leave now and so I start heading for the door. The guy starts laughing and then says, "Welcome to the BRANCH!"

HAHA. Good joke... lol. No, it was pretty funny, but I was definitely nervous when he pulled out his gun and cocked it! The guy is about 25, named J B, and is the ward mission leader's son. He is less-active and lives with his parents & girlfriend.

We have 2 new Elder's in our district that our being trained. One is Elder Hanson from Shelley, ID. He said he knows Sam Paul and had a foods class or something with him. Sweet! I was like "Hey do you know any Becketts?" And he told me he knew Sam. How cool :)

By the way, the Leesburg Elders got a gator last night! It was tied to their door when they got home lol. MAN why couldn't the Russ's have pulled through when I was still there? Ah well. I forgot to tell you I got "bit" by a dog. Luckily it wasn't hard, but I definitely felt teeth on my bum. We were knocking a street and it was like 8:20 at night, completely dark outside (This was still in Leesburg). We hear these dogs come running up and when the guy opens the door he doesn't even stop them from running out! They were barking and going crazy and one ran up behind me and just bit me. Luckily no damage done :) Hey, btw, if the W's add me as a friend on Facebook please accept :D

Church was great, there was a strong spirit there and R S was baptized last week. The G family is awesome! They had us over for a meal and it was authentic. The dad is a less active, the mom's not active, the daughter was recently baptized and confirmed, and now her younger brother! They also have 2 younger sisters who are going to be baptized soon we hope. They are 17, 15, 13, and 10, so it will definitely add to the ward's numbers :)

We also have some other awesome investigators, we set 3 dates this past week. We are going to invite the G sisters to be baptized this week so we should hopefully have 5 baptisms in October! Yay! The Lord is blessing us with success.

I don't have too much time left (I want to attach some pics real quick before I go), but I will say this - there is nothing better that I have experienced yet than serving the Lord full time. I have seen changes in myself and those around me that could only come from God. I love being here :) It makes me so happy! I am learning new things every single day, and I find that when I go forth with the attitude of searching for what the Lord would have me learn each day, He teaches me more. I love you all and am thankful for your examples! I am thankful for normal people. Sometimes I wonder if I am still sane here due to the lack of normal people... ha one guy while we were out tracting asked us if we knew where midgets and giants come from. Apparently they come from angels and demons breeding with humans. A prime example...

Anyway, the Gospel of Jesus Christ keeps us all on track. Everybody needs it in their lives, and we must constantly be doing our best to progress. Remember that everything comes from God and we are nothing without Him! Have a wonderful week, I love you all!\

Love, Elder Andrew John (Dad you have a cool name!) Beckett
Elder Beckett and the W Family...I think that is his Bishop's family!

With the landlord...