Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone back home! I will be staying in Minnetonka for one more transfer. We had a good week here and I'm super excited to spend 6 more weeks here. I am really wanting a baptism in this area and I hope and pray we will be able to get one with the Lord's help this transfer. 

Christmas was super good! We spent Christmas morning at the Nelson's house, who are some super awesome members of our ward! They hooked us up with some presents. They gave us really nice down coats that are water proof, Adidas hoodies, and iron man triathlon watches that are water proof. My family sent me lots of goodies, some new CMU gear that is sick, and some new socks and Gs that I very much needed. Thanks for everything! We had a great time with us and the Sisters there. 

Church was really good and it was fun to just see all the ward members and wish them all Merry Christmas. We had a special church program with the Christmas story from the Bible being read and then special musical numbers were sung in correspondence to each excerpt from the Bible. It was super good!

Christmas Eve was spent at the Hansen's house, and we had out investigator named Jeffrey there, too! It was such a great, spiritual evening and Jeffrey loved it so much. Quote of the night from him after dinner: "Man, those biscuits were off the chain!" He ate like 5 biscuits.  Brother Hansen got us new ties and new beanies. I got an Adidas one that is really nice and my tie is super cool, too! We read the story about the 3 trees on the hill who all had dreams to be great things like a treasure chest, sailing ship, and tallest tree. (It is called "The Three Trees".) We also read the story about Big Tom taking a licking for the little crippled boy and I got pretty teary eyed at the end of the story as I thought about the Savior taking our licking for us as well. It was a very good Christmas Eve. 

We got Bishop Patterson, Brother Hansen, and the Nelsons Christmas cards and we got Bishop Patterson and Brother Hansen $15 Great Harvest gift cards and the Nelsons a 30$ gift card to Spasso, which is this super good Italian restaurant in Wayzata. They loved them, and I'm glad we did that because they do a lot for us. 

We played basketball on Wednesday night at the church with DeAndre and some other guys that Johnny brought. It was super fun and DeAndre is doing good, he is just hard to get a hold of sometimes haha because he doesn't have a phone.  So we've been doing our best to have lessons with him, but it's been kinda hard this last week!

Brother Hunsaker came out teaching with us this week and we basically went through the the NAC/less active list and we had a lot of success in finding people who didn't want to ever see us again.  One guy said he would call the cops on us if we ever came back, one guy had moved so the guy that lived there went off on us for interrupting his evening, and one guy opened the door and shook his head and slammed it. So, pretty solid evening! 

We have been tracting a lot this week to find some new investigators. Our mission president has been telling us that people's hearts are softened at Christmas, but we haven't really seen it this week. Most people don't want to talk to us, and we only had a few people say we could come back. It's been kind of slow as far as finding, but I'm excited to go back to the people who said to come back and share our great message with them!

I've really enjoyed Christmas this year, even though it was hard to be away from family and friends. The Minnetonka ward feels more like home every day, and I'm grateful I can stay here for one more transfer. This ward is pretty great! As we've been able to study the atonement and the savior more this month, I've grown to love my Savior more and more and want to share His message of love, peace, and happiness. This gospel is so amazing and it really does change lives. It ends all good-byes and heals broken hearts, dreams, and families. I'm grateful to be on the Lord's errand at this time and continue my spiritual progression while helping others with theirs as well. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year this week! Enjoy the bowl games and let me know how they go! I love you all very much! Family, thanks for the great FaceTime call! It was so good to see you and I love you all dearly! 

Much love, 

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

12 Ties of Christmas continued...Tie from former high school football coach, Coach Anhder.

Tie from my quarterback coach and friend, Riley Jensen.

Tie from former Young Men's leader and friend, Rick Lungman.

Tie from our Stake President, President Tracy Walker - eating dinner at an awesome ribs place with Brother and Sister Fors.

Tie from a former little league football coach and friend, Brett Payne.  This is with Brother Haradon, whom we have recently helped reactivate.

Tie from former Bishop and Home Teaching companion, Grant Cardon.  Christmas Eve with Jeffrey.

My favorite tie - the one from my Dad that I got to wear on Christmas and during the FaceTime with my family.

Brother Nelson on Christmas Day.

Christmas Day with Elder Nielsen and the Sister Missionaries.

Some thoughts my Mom sent me on Christmas Day.  This is what a mission is all about.

Baby it's cold outside!

Hello to all my friends, family and coaches back home! I love you all so much and miss you a lot this Christmas season. It's hard to be away from my family during Christmas but I will be well taken care of this week! I'm excited to spend Christmas with the Minnetonka ward this year! They have become my home away from home.

This week was pretty crazy! Elder Gooch, who was my companion, got emergency transferred to Brainard and my new companion is Elder Nielsen. He and Elder Gooch were friends in high school so that was cool. 

Wednesday night we had a super fun game of basketball at our church. Johnny Chapman brought like 5 guys who play at Hopkins high school to come play with us and it was pretty fun. Those guys were super good and Elder Gooch and I and one of our investigators named Kendall took those guys to town haha. One less active guy in our ward named Zack Strickland came to play too and he was also on our team. He is basically what I would be if I was less active. He loves watching football and I think that plays a part in his church activity. But he's been to church the last two weeks and came to basketball so that is super cool!

On Monday night we went to Brother Broadbent's house for dinner and to get the treats and stuff ready for the Ward Harvest. We had a super good time even though I suck at decorating cookies haha.  Tuesday night we had ward harvest and me, Elder Gooch and Brother Broadbent visited Brother Dam, this super nice old Vietnamese guy in our ward, Sister Kaimondo, who is a single lady in our ward, and dropped off the gift package things at some other people's houses. It was a good night and we visited like 35-40 people as a ward council/missionaries. So pretty successful!

On Thursday we got up and it was just a normal day and the Mission President called us at like 8 am and said the APs were coming to get Elder Gooch  at 11 am. So we hurried and packed up all his stuff and they came and brought Elder Nielsen, who was serving in TCYSA, and brought him to Minnetonka. Then we immediately went to zone service at this old folks home and sang Christmas carols with them. Elder Glauser who is in Bloomington, was not happy to be there. He found a nut cracker and carried it around with us and pretended the nutcracker was singing and it was pretty funny! I got to talk to this lady named Delores and she showed me this book about her family that she had made and it was super cool to talk to her! She was really nice and wasn't super interested in the gospel but I could tell she really enjoyed the chat so it was cool to spread some Christmas cheer!

On Saturday we had the ward Christmas party and it was soooo fun! We had to shovel out the church at 8 am and help set up and help clean up so we spent about half the day there. I love the Minnetonka ward so much! Now that Elder Nielsen is here, I will probably serve here for 6 months so that will be sweet! We had a great brunch and we had some less actives there, but unfortunately none of our investigators could make it.  Jeffrey was going to come but he didn't get ready on time and his ride had to help set up. He told his ride to just go to the party without him. We went and visited him after and took him some food from the party and he ate ALL of it. It seemed like he hadn't eaten in days. We probably will take him some more food this week because I'm not sure how much he has to eat. We talked about the party and a little about the plan of salvation and dating haha. He said he will come to church for sure this next weekend. He's doing super well and we are going to see him tonight too! 

We haven't seen KeAndre or DeAndre for like over a week and I'm a little worried about them. They were doing really good and I'm afraid they just got caught up in the fast life again. Drinking, drugs, partying, etc. It makes me sad that they are slipping but we are doing everything we can to help them and teach them but they have agency too. It sucks, but that's just how it goes! It is a great part of the plan of salvation that we get to have our agency. 

Eleshea has been MIA as well and we haven't seen her for a week either. She keeps setting up appointments with us and then isn't there when we go and then doesn't answer our texts or anything. So it's been kinda hard with some of the investigators we have been doing well with. But now we just need to find some more good ones!

We had to bike 9.5 miles to dinner in a snow storm and 8 degree weather (not including wind chill) on Friday night and then on Saturday we biked about 3 to dinner as well in sub zero temperatures haha.  I consider myself a true Minnesotan now after having done that! It was cold but we managed to survive! Just another cool story to add to the mission experience. 

This week I got to start opening the 12 Ties of Christmas! That is honestly the sweetest present as a missionary. Haha. I love getting a new tie each day and I have quite the plethora of ties now! Thanks to all the great men who have given me ties so far, and I'm excited to keep opening the rest of them this week!

On Sunday we had to stay inside because it was like -22 without windchill, so we texted the whole ward and asked them to share the Light the World video, favorite Mormon message or scripture on Facebook, twitter, instagram, etc. Then Brother Sherman called us and told us Kevin could meet with us that evening. Kevin is Brother Sherman's daughter's boyfriend that we are teaching. He is super cool! So we got picked up and it takes like 30-40 minutes to get to their house haha. We taught the plan of salvation and it was a super good lesson. We used this plan of salvation visual aid kit I acquired from a missionary who went home and it is awesome! Kevin really caught on to the principles taught and he told us his grandma was really struggling with health issues and he broke down in tears. I was able to testify that God loves her and him and that even if she passes away, he will still see her in the next life. I told him I knew that from personal experience. He loved it and it was a super good lesson!  

Then Sunday night we had a dinner and FHE with RN and her 3 girls. She and her husband got divorced so we have helped her with yard work and stuff like that. We read Luke 2 and Matthew 2 and did the window nativity with them. (My mom sent me a window cling Nativity set to decorate their apartment with.)  I saved it just for that! And our window has a layer of ice on it so it wouldn't really stick.  But thanks for sending that mom, because it was awesome for the FHE! We ended up having a really productive Sunday even though we were confined indoors all day!

Thank you to everyone for the Christmas wishes and presents. I love all of you back home so much and all my friends at school and at college. Family, I love you guys so much and wish you a very merry Christmas! Have a great week and a happy holiday this weekend!

Much love, 

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Decorating cookies for the Ward Harvest.

Grandpa Gary's tie.

President Wilson's tie.

After biking 9.5 miles in the snow for a dinner appointment. Maybe we should have said, "We'll eat in, thanks!"

Coach Johnson's tie.

Kris White's tie.

Welcome to Minnesota!

The nose warmer my mom sent me - crocheted by one of her colleagues at work.

Erik Durrant's tie.

The window cling nativity.

First Snowfall

Hello to all my family, friends, and coaches back home, at college and serving worldwide! I love you all and hope this email finds all is well with each of you!

We had our first big snowfall of the year and got about 8-9 inches Saturday night and Sunday morning. With the snow, we also have gotten some temperatures in the negatives as well.  This next week we are on bikes and the high most days is below zero, so pray that we won't freeze to death haha! Just kidding...

So this week was pretty good and we had some cool stories and some crazy stories as well! The first cool and crazy story was this guy named Ralph. We found him right after a lesson with Eleshea and we gave him a Book of Mormon. He said we could come back and we ended up having 2 lessons with him. He said he was having a tough time paying his rent so we took him a "blessing bag" (thanks mom), and when we took it to him, he opened the door and was super sad/crying. He also had a razor knife in his hand... So we went in and he said his mom just died and he was dropping some strings of profanity and it was a pretty sobering scene. I felt really bad for the guy because he basically had nothing and then his mom died. So I was pretty sad and I was crying and he was crying and Elder Gooch was like not crying at all. He was acting a little jumpy and I was like just super sad for Ralph. He had us pray with him like 5 times and I guess the one prayer I said he kept looking at us to see if our eyes were closed and Elder Gooch kept his eyes open the whole prayer and made sure Ralph didn't do anything crazy. So I'm just like bawling saying the prayer and I guess Ralph was trying to kill us with a razor blade or something.  Then he started digging in his bag for something and I didn't know what it was and Elder Gooch was acting all jumpy and Ralph was about to freak out so Gooch asked for the phone and texted "We gotta go..." and handed it back to me haha, so I realized maybe we should go! So we told him we were going to go find someone to take him to church and basically ran out of the apartment and determined we would never go back to see him. So that's how that went...

We had Zone conference on Thursday and that was super fun! I got to see a lot of missionaries I hadn't seen for a while so that was fun! We also watched "Its a Wonderful Life" which was a super good movie.  I have seen it once before but I thought it was dumb the first time I watched it, but I really enjoyed it this time.

We had a lesson with Ted Fors on Friday night and read the story of the brother of Jared with him out of the Book of Mormon. We taught about how we need to have faith and trust that the Lord will help us, but we have to actually do our part as well. Ted hasn't really been doing anything to get himself to church, so we talked to him about how he needs to take his meds and actually use his oxygen and stuff so he physically has strength to come to church. It was a really good lesson and he understood that he has faith, but he still needs to act on his faith. He set January 1st as his day to come to church so we are hyped. 

We also had a lesson with Jeffrey on Tuesday and he opened up a lot to us about his life and stuff. We read Alma 14 with him about Alma and Amulek being in prison and having to endure trials and have faith to endure them and know that God had a plan for us. He told us how he has been struggling with what his purpose is in life and why God has kept him alive (he was in a motorcycle accident a few years ago and lost his leg).  I was able to testify that God has a plan for him and that he is important and will be able to help someone in the church or just someone that is in his life. It was a really good lesson and the Spirit was super strong when we left.  Unfortunately he didn't make it to church on Sunday because he had a commitment already, but he said he will be there next week for sure!

We haven't seen much of DeAndre and KeAndre because they are working so much and never answer their phone. DeAndre came to basketball with us on Wednesday and it was super fun. We had like 6 people from the ward play with us too and it was a super intense game haha. It was good to blow off some steam mid-way through the week.

Eleshea rescheduled like 4 times on us and then couldn't come to church because she was babysitting her nieces and nephews or something like that. So we are teaching her tomorrow and she said she will be at the ward Christmas party this Saturday, and also to church, so we are hoping that all works out!

We tracted in a snowstorm for 2 hours on Saturday and had a lot of success. It was pretty cool! The first door we knocked they let us right in and offered us tea, coffee and hot chocolate haha. We declined but they insisted we take a pack of hand warmers from them, so we've got some of those now. And they said we could come back and carol at their house this week! We got let in like 75% of the houses we knocked and gave away a lot of Books of Mormon and pass along cards that have the Christmas video on them. The very last door we knocked, this little kid answered and let us in and his mom came down and she thought we were Jehovah Witnesses and it was pretty funny.  We told her we were Mormons and she was like, "Oh....!"  Haha, it was pretty good stuff. We taught her about the restoration and she said she would come to church the next day. We also helped her jump start her car. She was actually homeless like 4 months ago but her wealthy brother sold her this nice house and 2 cars for $1.00 because he moved to Europe to get away from white collar crimes I guess haha. Not sure on the whole story.  Anyways it was pretty cool!

So Sunday rolled around and it had snowed a lot, so we drove to church and it took a half hour and usually takes like 15 minutes tops. We had ward council and that was the funniest, most awkward ward council I've ever been in.So we were talking about this lady in our ward who needs a kidney transplant and her son who is in prison is doing it in march when we gets released. The YW President felt like we can't let him back in the church or anything because I guess he is a predator of sorts. So we talked about that whole thing. Then, things got weird haha. She told us we need to stop doing basketball on Wednesday nights. And we were like, "Why?" And the YM President was the one who set the whole thing up so the young men could play ball with us right after YM. She said the YW were getting distracted because Elder Gooch and I are very good looking missionaries and the YW I guess are attracted to us. So it got really weird and she was saying how she didn't want there to be a problem with us and the YW, and I was so embarrassed and Brother Nelson was like, "This is total BS. Nothing is gonna happen." And he was like, "Can't you control the YW?"  Then she said they were basically drooling over the Elders on Wednesday at basketball and I was dying and thinking, "What the heck is going on?" He wasn't having any of it and said that basketball is still on Wednesday nights and everyone agreed with him that nothing was going to happen haha. She said she was worried that a situation may arise if we are in the building together and it was weird. So yeah... good times haha. She said she felt bad she said that after church and that she wasn't worried about us doing anything and we were awesome. She had good intentions and stuff so I was like, "No worries."  I got to speak in church on Sunday and I gave a talk on the prodigal son. It was fun for me during the week to study that parable and also the other prodigal son as well. That's a talk by Elder Holland that is super good. So I learned a lot this week as I studied and prepared my talk. Church was super good and I love the ward so much! 

This week has been really good and I'm learning that a mission is tough and is a struggle, but things always end up working out for the best. Thanks for all the support I'm receiving from home and from family and friends. I love all of you and hope your week is great! 

Much love, 

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Tracting in a blizzard.

Check out the temperature.  And this is in the car!  Next week we will be on bikes!

Tough week + lots of blessings!

Hello to all my family, friends and coaches back home and at college. I love you all and pray all is well with you! This week has been kinda rough and spiritually trying but I've learned a lot and we ended up having a good end of the week

We had a lot of appointments set up early in the week with our pool of investigators and every single one of them fell through or cancelled last minute. We did a lot of finding and didn't have a lot of success early in the week. It was rough and I started to wonder what the heck was going on! We have been having so much success the last month or so and this week was like total crap the first half of the week. Wednesday was a LONG day and we had 8 appointments set up and every single one fell through last second. And two of our investigators who had date sets, Tony and Tabitha, dropped us this week. So that sucked. We tracted and did a lot of finding on Wednesday and nothing happened. The night was capped off with us having a feeling to go see this one guy we had talked to a while ago. So we walked a mile to go see him and he opened the door and before we said a word, he screamed, "Get the f*** off our f****** property! We got a f****** baby sleeping!!" And slams the door as hard as he can. So that was a picture perfect ending to the day. That night I was pretty mad and poured out my struggles and frustrations to God that night. I was like, "Why are we having no success right now? Two weeks ago everyone we talked to wanted to hear what we had to say and now everyone hates us. What the heck?" The answer I got was, "Don't worry about other people. They have their agency. I am proud of you and I love you." That was an answer to a sincere prayer and I needed it really bad right then. I'm grateful God loves us and answers our prayers

On Wednesday, we helped the Memeas move. They are moving to Shakopee and they are super awesome. They have fed us a ton and Brother Memea is so funny. I was sad to see them go 'cause I love their kids and Brother and Sister Memea, but they will do great in Shakopee!

On Thursday we exchanged with the Plymouth Elders and Elder Shelley was in Minnetonka with me. It was pretty fun! We found a less active guy that said we could come back that no one even knew. So we are going back this week to see him! We also visited the Fish family to show them the new Christmas video. It was a party 'cause they had Brother Fish's sister and brother-in-law there and all their kids so it was kinda crazy! I love the Fish family, though. Brother Fish's sister lives like a block from our house. I think so you should visit them if you can! We also went to see Robert and Stormy. Stormy left I guess last week and we have no idea where she went. She just had all her bags packed and her daughters were there and she was heading out the door and we were like, "Stormy, where are you going?" And she's like, "Ask Robert!" So we went in and Robert was like, "I don't even know what's going on...?" He has dementia and had a stroke recently and we think Stormy might have just been taking advantage of him. So we don't know for sure but we have been checking on Robert a few times a week to make sure he's still alive and stuff haha.

On Friday we had a lesson with Eleshea in a stairwell cuz we can't break rule of three. We read 3 Nephi 11 with her and taught about when Jesus came to the Americas and then we showed her the first part of the Joseph Smith video and she really liked it! As we were leaving her apartment, we saw this guy standing by the door to the apartment so we decided to talk to him and he accepted a Book of Mormon and said we could come back the next day! So we went back and he had been praying we would come back because he had been struggling with this scripture in the Book of Mormon. He read like 4 chapters and he is illiterate. He has never been to school and he used to be a druggy and has been in and out of prison and homeless shelters. Anyways, he is so cool! He said he would come to church on Sunday, so we got a ride for him and we showed up Sunday morning and he was packing his bags and said he was getting evicted. We gave him a blessing and shared some comforting words with him. He was really sad he couldn't go to church but he said he just had to get his affairs in order and stuff. He said to stop by tonight so we are going tonight to help him out with anything we can. He is an amazing guy. He has a broken jaw right now 'cause he got hit in the head with a sledgehammer by some crazy guys that jumped him. He has never been to school and put forth a ton of effort to read the Book of Mormon. He really wants to get right with God and it is cool to see! I hope all is well with him tonight!


Sunday we were supposed to have like 6 people there and none ended up making it. Eleshea had gotten in a car wreck on Saturday and had like a panic attack or something and had to go to the hospital Sunday morning. She's been going through some rough stuff right now, so keep her in your prayers! DeAndre and KeAndre have kind of been flakes this week and have been partying more. It's sad to see. I wish they could just figure it out 'cause they are really close but just won't drop the fast life. Jeffrey was sick and couldn't go either so it was a sad Sunday. However, when we got to church, the Sherman's daughter had brought her boyfriend! We had a dinner with them earlier in the week and she said she had given him a Book of Mormon and he wanted to come to church with her. We talked to him a lot and he really liked church and we are teaching him a lesson with them this week. We got to bear our testimonies in church and it was hard to get up and look out over my ward that I have grown to love and think that this might be my last fast Sunday with them. I'm guessing I will get transferred this transfer but I told President to leave me here one more transfer. This ward is so awesome and I'm so sad to leave this area.

We had dinner with the Smith's Saturday night and we had a great time with them! They are one of my favorite families and Brother Smith is awesome. We had a super good lesson with them and Sunday he bore his testimony on missionary work and did us a huge solid 'cause he said everyone should have us in their home because we are awesome and bring a great spirit into the home. Haha I was like, "Brother Smith, you're the man!" We had dinner with the Baks and we had a super awesome lesson with them and they are doing some good missionary work as a family! We had a super cool dinner of brisket, artisan bread, peas, mashed potatoes and salad. It was soooooo good! Their oldest kid, Jackson, wanted to see me do handstand push-ups so I got to do some for them. They're super great!

Then we got to go to the Hansens for the Christmas devotional and making gingerbread houses! It was super fun and the Warners in our ward were there, too. We had a fun time and the kids were crazy! I love the Hansens and they are super cool! Brother Hansen asked his wife if he could go on splits with us Wednesday night at 8:00 (we have basketball then) and he gave us the wink and it was super funny! I was dying.

So even though we had a rough week in the beginning, it ended up being super good the last few days.  I'm excited for this upcoming week and we have been trying to use the #LightTheWorld as much as possible and it is going great for us! I love you all and hope you have a great week and focus more on the Savior this Christmas time of year!

Oh, I forgot about our lesson with Ted Fors! We taught him Friday and we taught about the atonement and how we don't use the part of the atonement that helps with our sicknesses and infirmities nearly as much as we should. We all bore our testimonies of it and so did his wife! It was a very powerful lesson and we capped it off by giving him a blessing. His wife said we addressed a lot of things in it he hadn't talked about to us. So that was cool!

Love you all!

Much love,
Elder Beach

Showing off our "borrowed" WWE belts...

Making candy houses while watching the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.

The Baks have some pretty awesome cars!

Alabama vs Auburn!

We have had a good week since Thursday and Thanksgiving! We had a super good lesson with Ted Fors. We taught him about following the prophet and also our discussion led into talking about prayer and baptism. His wife is a member and his brother is a convert and is super active in our ward. Ted hasn't met with missionaries for over 15 years (since his brother joined the church) and right now he is progressing and has a date set for baptism. He has really made some good progress the last few weeks. He told us a while back he was never stepping foot in a church again and this week he said he would come to church, he just physically can't due to COPD and rheumatoid arthritis. He wants us to give him a blessing this week to help him with his physical challenges and hopefully he can get to church soon. He told us he has been thinking about his brother's baptism a lot and he has been reading and praying every day! We are trying to help him have faith that if he does everything he can to come to church and do the right things, the Lord will allow him to make it to church.

Saturday was a pretty good day! We found these apartments in Hopkins that we hadn't tracted yet so we decided to tract those. We talked to a few people but no one was super interested. One lady said we could come back later this week but that was about it haha. Then we knocked on this one door and this guy named Jeffrey answers and said we could come in. He was on crutches and told us he had lost his leg in a motorcycle accident a few years ago. When we went in the Alabama vs Auburn game was just starting..... BUT we turned it off to have a lesson. So we found out he had met with missionaries before and had a Book of Mormon but hadn't really read it or anything and never was super interested. He told us he was looking for a church where people lived what they taught and weren't hypocrites and didn't take all your money. I told him he would find that in our church! We shared our testimonies of the Book of Mormon after teaching him about it and he said he would come to church the next day. He texted us that night and asked if we had gotten him a ride, so we knew he was serious about coming to church!

Right after we visited him we stopped by DeAndre and KeAndre'a for a lesson. They were both hung over when we got there and said they had been out bar hopping and stuff the night before. We talked to them about consequences of our choices and used the push-up lesson about the atonement as a visual aid. So Elder Beach got to do a quick set of 50 push-ups. They really understood that Christ's atonement is there whether we use it or not, but it makes our Heavenly Father and Jesus sad if we don't use it! We had a king size Hershey's bar and used that as the "atonement." Then I did 15 push-ups for everyone to get some of the Hershey's bar and I did push-ups for everyone whether they took the candy or not. They loved the lesson and really understood it. So we taught about how, Christ atoned for their mistakes and how it's always there, even if they don't use it. But we should all use it! Then we talked about making choices when there's an easier wrong and a harder right choice. KeAndre said he always wants to make the harder right choice but just ends up making the easier wrong choice because in the moment it seems easier and more fun. So we talked about the consequences of making the choice to drink a lot and stay out late: he was sick, he slept through half the day, etc. Then we talked about the consequences if he had chosen to go to bed and not go bar hopping: he would feel better, more productive day, feel better about himself... etc. Then I said "KeAndre, another consequence of going out and drinking and sleeping for half the day is you missed half the Alabama vs Auburn game!" His jaw dropped and he goes, "No!! Are you serious?? That was the only game I wanted to watch today!" He freaked out and was trying to get the TV to work and the signal was so bad and wouldn't work that great. It was seriously the funniest thing ever haha. The signal on the TV wouldn't work so we told him to pray for it to work. So he did and it started working. So we watched about 15 minutes of the game with them and got to build our relationship with them. They told us they were for sure coming to church on Sunday, and we were like, "But what if you don't?" And they both said, "There is no way we aren't coming." And we were like, "OK! We will be here to pick you up!"

After dinner we did some stop bys and found this guy named Lamin who is from Gambia. He is actually the son of one of our potential investigators and he let us in and we taught him about the Book of Mormon and got a date set with him for baptism. He seemed excited to read the book because it taught of Christ and he had a strong belief in Christ and wanted to improve his values and life. We told him the Book of Mormon would help him do just that and he liked it.

So we asked Johnny Chapman to take us, DeAndre and KeAndre to church and Brother and Sister Hadley to take Jeffrey! All three were able to make it to church and LOVED it. The members were so nice to them and they met like 3/4 of the ward and people were great! They really liked the talks in Sacrament meeting and also the lesson we had in Elder's Quorum about stumbling blocks in life. It was just a super good Sunday! I was so happy we had 3 investigators at church and they stayed the whole time too haha. We had dinner at Bishop's house Sunday night and it was super good. Bishop Patterson is awesome and I love him. He and his wife played all these Christmas songs on their self-playing piano and Bishop Patterson sang all the songs and his daughters were so embarrassed and we were dying. It was a good time!


Sunday night we tracted in the freezing rain for an hour and a half and had zero success but went home content with our work. If people don't want to hear our message that is their choice. We are just servants of the Lord trying to deliver the message we know will bring people happiness. I know this church is true and it brings true happiness to people. I saw that in the faces of DeAndre, KeAndre and Jeffrey. I love the Book of Mormon and know it is true and that Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration!

I love you all and hope your week is amazing! I'm sure going to miss being home for the Christmas time of year. I love Christmas with my family and friends but I'm grateful I can help people in the Minnetonka area find that joy and happiness this Christmas season.

Much love,

Elder Beach
#MavUp #10

DeAndre, KeAndre and Jeffrey at church!

Five Months - Plus Thanksgiving!

Hello to all my family and friends back home, at college and on missions! I love you all and hope all is well with you. Shoutout to my CMU Mavs for a great season! I'm very excited to play there when I get home.

I hit my 5 month mark on the 22nd which is insane!! Time is flying by super fast and seems to be going faster each month. Next month I will be a quarter of the way done with my mission.

I'll start with today because it is Thanksgiving! We are eating dinner at the Nelson's house right now and they are so awesome. The Cowboys vs Redskins game is on and Brother Nelson said he isn't turning it off. Tender mercy from him! I'm loving life. There are several other families from the ward here and we are just sitting around talking and having a great time! I seriously love this ward so much and am going to cry when I to leave.

This morning we had a huge basketball game with like 25 people there. It was super fun! We had like 15 ward members and we had one of our investigators come too. He was a baller and can jump outta the gym.

Brother Nelson had been talking crap to us all week that he was going to kick our butts in basketball. So we show up and we were ready to go and let's just say he didn't show up to play... hahaha We kicked his butt. Johnny Chapman, who is in our ward and loves basketball more than life, invited the sons from a family in the Eden Prairie ward to come play so they came up, too.

Yesterday was a pretty cool day! We had a solid day planned and literally everything fell through so we decided to do some stop bys and tract. We did that for a few hours and didn't really have any success so we did a few member stop bys as well. We had 3 appointments for the evening but all of them were in Wayzata, Orono and Plymouth and we live in Hopkins and have no car haha. We asked literally 21 people to joint teach with us and no one could because it was the night before Thanksgiving. Then finally Brother Smith bailed us out and said he could go. He is one of my favorite members of the ward. He is a super humble, down to earth guy but he is so cool at the same time! It's hard to explain but I love him! We visited Stormy and Robert in Wayzata and when we got there, Stormy had apparently left Robert and we didn't know where she went or anything. So Robert has dementia and can barely get around his apartment and stuff. We have become friends with some of the guys in his apartment building who drink and smoke all the time but love football, so we hit it off really quick with them haha. One of them is named Mike and said he would check on Robert each day. He is super cool and his daughter is really interested in the Book of Mormon and she's like 9-10, so we talk to him and his daughter quite a bit! We gave Robert a blessing and he asked me to do it and I honestly have no clue what I said, but after we left, Brother Smith was like "Beach, that was a really good blessing!" I was like, "Thanks!" haha. It's cool to be a mouthpiece for the Lord and the Spirit! Later that night, we saw Mike Pike, who is the ex Navy SEAL sniper in our ward. Haha he is the funniest guy. He doesn't have any teeth and he is on pain killers all the time so he is pretty fun to talk to.

Last week we got in with this less active guy in our ward named Joel Winspear. He hasn't been to church in years and he let us in and we had a super good lesson with him! He came to church two weeks ago and said he would start reading the Book of Mormon again. We text him one verse out of the Book of Mormon to read each day!


DeAndre and KeAndre are doing pretty good! They are these twin black guys we are teaching and they are so funny. We have had 3 lessons with them since last time I wrote. We taught KeAndre about choices because he asked us why we have to make decisions in life and we don't just have the way laid out for us. We taught about Todd Maranovich and how his dad gave him no choice to be anything other than Robo QB, and then eventually he just destroyed his life through drugs and stuff. Then we contrasted that with Peyton Manning. His dad, Archie, was a great example to him of how to be a QB and didn't force him to be a QB. Peyton made his own choice and just followed in his dad's footsteps and eventually became one of the greatest of all time. Satan wanted us to be the perfect person all of the time and that doesn't work. Jesus came and was the perfect example for us but we have to choose to be like him. We get to chart our own course. KeAndre loved the lesson and it made a lot of sense to him because he actually played football. Anyway, on Sunday last week, we stopped by to pick him up for church with Johnny Chapman and we called him like 30 minutes before we went over and he said this girl had broken into his apartment and trashed it and smashed his finger in the door. So we go over and there is blood everywhere. Like everywhere. The apartment was trashed and it was crazy. We had stopped by the night before and actually taught a lesson on the doorstep to the girl that had trashed the apartment. She was there and told us she was KeAndre's girlfriend. We found out later that he had been messing around with her before work, went to work and came home with his girlfriend that actually was his girlfriend, and then the girls got in a fight and the one smashed KeAndre's finger in the door and it was a mess. So we talked to him about finding a good girlfriend and not having girls on the side and stuff and he said he would start doing that now haha.

Eleshea is doing really well too! She wants to get married before she gets baptized but she told us she is in Alma in the Book of Mormon and believes it is true 100% and that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that this is the true church! She has even been sharing the Book of Mormon with people while she's at work. She's on fire right now haha. She's coming to church again and has some super good fellowshippers in the ward too. I'm excited for her in the next month!

Since it's Thanksgiving I figured I better share what I am grateful for!
1. I'm grateful for my family. I didn't realize how much I would miss you guys until I had to be apart from you for 2 years. I really love you and thanks for all you do for me!
2. I'm grateful to be alive at this time. Life is too short and goes too fast to not be grateful for it.
3. I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon. It is really the keystone of our religion and I know without a doubt it is true. I'm grateful for the answers to questions it has given me and for the peace and joy I've found in its pages.
4. I'm grateful for my friends. You have influenced me so much for good and I am always going to be grateful for that! I love you guys and love you like family!
5. I'm grateful for football. I'm lucky I have the opportunity to continue to play the game I love after I get home and I'm thankful that Coach Martin gave me a shot to play for the Mavs.
6. I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to serve a mission and share the gospel with people. I love helping people change their lives and come closer to our savior Jesus Christ!
I love you all and hope and pray all is well with you. Look for God's hand in your life and you will find it and find happiness as well! Book of Mormon scripture for the day: Alma 26:37 "Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen." Hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving! Love you!
Much love,
Elder Beach

Our awesome investigators, DeAndre and KeAndre!

Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner at the Nelson's.

Awesome place, awesome hosts, awesome company for Thanksgiving!