Arcadia Branch Visit

Arcadia is the last unit of the Sarasota Stake on our visit rotation.  I saved the Arcadia Branch for the last because there are no missionaries assigned there.  And I expected they would tell me about that.  They did, but they weren't too upset about it, particularly when I told them the are other units without missionaries.

The branch is small but seems to have some strong members.  Unfortunately, just not too many of them.  The branch president is "imported" from Port Charlotte about a 45 minute drive to the south.  Several of the other brethren have served as branch president in the past.  There were only 38 in Sacrament Meeting, including us and a visiting family of five.  The branch president was apologetic and indicated that two families who regularly attend were absent.  He said they usually have over 40 in Sacrament Meeting.

We had 11 in our combined R.S./Priesthood class.  We were able to present what we had prepared.  After talking about using the pamphlets, we demonstrated how to share them with others.  We divided them into groups of 2 and had them practice.  One sister said he hated role playing and basically checked out.  On the other hand, another sister came up to us afterwards and asked for additional copies of the pamphlets because she wants to share them with others.

After the meetings, the ward mission leader invited us to have lunch with him and his family and then gone on a missionary visit with him.  A part-member family moved into his mother's neighborhood, and he has been working with them.  The wife was sealed in the temple many years ago but was divorced.  She has been inactive for the 27 years that she and her current husband have been married.  He has had a variety of interesting experiences including attending a theology school in Scotland and serving as an Episcopal priest.  He left that because he felt that his fellow priest were more interested in their careers than serving the members.  He has received a copy of the Book of Mormon and has been reading it.  While we visited, his wife said that she needs to get a "temple divorce" from her previous husband so that they can be sealed in the temple.  I spoke a bit about the Restoration and left a pamphlet with him.  I think he is genuinely interested in the Church, and she will continue to push him.  He has already reduced his smoking and beer drinking without having received any formal lessons on the Word of Wisdom.  If he continues to progress, we will need to figure out how to get some full-time missionaries to meet with them.

Early Mothers' Day cards presented to Renee by the Branch Mission Leader's children