After we arrived in Cisco, we tried to locate the Church in Eastland. It was listed on the LDS website and we tried to find it with our GPS. We drove around looking, but no luck. Later that day we were driving around in a little town nearby – Ranger. As we drove down one street we spotted the Elders on their bikes. Are there coincidences? They were visiting a member family in Ranger and they explained how to find the Church. It is in quite an out-of-the-way place. It is a very small building, but set on quite a large lot – very beautiful. There is a chapel with a piano, a portable podium, and a sacrament table. There are no benches, only chairs. There is a Primary room, a nursery, a library, a Young Women’s room, a kitchen and a Relief Society room. There is an office for the branch president and one for the clerk. It works for the branch.
We attended our first meeting in Eastland on Sunday, October 18, 2009. There were about 30 in attendance. We met President May, the Branch President, who lives in Breckenridge, about 30 miles north of the Church.
He has one counselor, Scotty Wood, who comes from Abilene (about 45 minutes west of Eastland). Brother Wood also serves as the ward clerk.
Relief Society was taught by the President, Karleen Anderson. She did a great job and there was good participation from the members. Sunday School was taught by Brook Bowden, a single gal who is also the 2nd counselor in the Relief Society. It is a small branch and each member wears many hats. The Primary President, Sharla Carroll, is also the pianist for the branch. She didn’t attend Relief Society so they used a boom box with the hymn CD’s for singing.
President May met with us after the block and went over the branch list with us. He also asked us to speak the next Sunday.
