Wauchula Branch

We visited the Wauchula Branch today.  This is a small struggling branch located in the central part of the state about an hour drive away.  As is true with most small branches, there is a shortage of priesthood leadership.  The Branch President lives in Sebring, about 45 minutes away.  He only has one counselor.  The EQ President was in attendance, but I was told that he had not attended for the last several weeks.  He and his family will be moving north for 3 months to work on a pumpkin farm.

They had two missionaries assigned to the branch until a few weeks ago.  The missionaries had callings in the branch, and the branch members leaned heavily on them.  Now that they are gone, the members apparently are not stepping up to take up the slack.

There are a couple of strong couples in the branch.  They seem to be trying but it is hard for a few people to do everything in the branch.  (Renee's comments:  When we attended today, we were both asked to take a part in the Branch Council meeting.  I was asked to share a spiritual thought and Brent was asked to share something from Preach My Gospel.  We offered the prayers in sacrament meeting and I led the music.  In Relief Society, I also played the piano for the opening and closing hymns.  As you can see, they need help.)

The interesting part is they have a very nice church building.  It was built 30 years ago when the average Sacrament Meeting attendance was around 100.  Now the average is only 25 to 30.

At one time, the branch was converted to Spanish-speaking, and the English-speaking members drove to meetings in Arcadia, another small branch about 45 minutes away.  However, the activity in the Spanish-speaking branch dwindled, so they changed back to an English-speaking branch a year or so ago.  The reasoning was that most of the Spanish-speaking members could also speak English.  While the missionaries were there, they provided Spanish translation of the Sacrament Meeting.

It is just a challenging situation.  I'm glad that President Clover, the Sarasota Stake President, has to deal with it instead of me!

The underutilized Wauchula Chapel.

The older, central part of Wauchula town.