This week has been pretty fun! We've had a lot of success this week and a lot of it happened after plans fell through and we just happened to be in the right place at the right time! I know the Lord is in charge of this work and he is driving it and we are just instruments to help the work progress.
I'll start with my birthday because that was probably my favorite day of the week! So we were planning on having 3 investigators at church and I was super excited for that. I woke up and opened all my presents that I hadn't opened yet haha. I loved my new Colorado Mesa gear (shout out to Mom and Dad and Coach Martin for hooking me up!) and the new books are so good. I'm loving them! Shout out to Grandma and Grandpa for all the goodies and new gloves and sweater! Thanks to the Boucks for coming in clutch with the Wendy's gift card.Thanks to the McRae's and Christensen's for the birthday wishes and cards and cash, and thanks to my family for hooking me up with all the great gifts and food!
So we went over to Robert and Stormy's house because we said we were gonna cook them pancakes before church. So we cooked some bomb pancakes for them and they loved them. Then they came to church with us! They are from Arkansas and have been married for like 13 years. He told us he got excommunicated but we aren't sure about his whole story sooooo yeah... we are just treating him like an investigator because we have zero info on anything about him. But they came to church with us and then this other guy that pretty much fell in our laps Saturday night came too! He was a media referral for a bible and he invited us in and we talked for like half an hour. He said his wife was a member and was in our ward but she isn't, so we don't know if she is or not haha. So we talked to him for a while about the church and he said he would come on Sunday and he did! So we had 3 investigators at church and a ton of less actives came too. It was a good day of church. I hadn't really told anyone it was my birthday but like half the ward knew so Sister Fish made me a huge tray of cupcakes and Sister Hadley bought me a cake, haha so I was pretty set.
So we went over to Robert and Stormy's house because we said we were gonna cook them pancakes before church. So we cooked some bomb pancakes for them and they loved them. Then they came to church with us! They are from Arkansas and have been married for like 13 years. He told us he got excommunicated but we aren't sure about his whole story sooooo yeah... we are just treating him like an investigator because we have zero info on anything about him. But they came to church with us and then this other guy that pretty much fell in our laps Saturday night came too! He was a media referral for a bible and he invited us in and we talked for like half an hour. He said his wife was a member and was in our ward but she isn't, so we don't know if she is or not haha. So we talked to him for a while about the church and he said he would come on Sunday and he did! So we had 3 investigators at church and a ton of less actives came too. It was a good day of church. I hadn't really told anyone it was my birthday but like half the ward knew so Sister Fish made me a huge tray of cupcakes and Sister Hadley bought me a cake, haha so I was pretty set.
On Tuesday we had his thing called ward harvest. All the auxiliary leaders and the missionaries get together and split up in pairs and go visit less actives and investigators. We were like almost 100% on getting in the door with people so it was a super successful night! I got to go with the bishop and he is awesome so it was a good night. We visited Mike Pike who is an ex-Navy SEAL sniper who has like over 200 confirmed kills. He told us he is on medical marijuana for pain and he doesn't have any teeth so he's an interesting guy for sure.
On Saturday we had a lesson with a referral from the South Minneapolis sisters. It was a guy named Albert and his wife, Heidi. They are 7th Day Adventists and they are crazy. They have been taught like every missionary lesson and he was like, "I know everything about your religion so teach me something I don't know." He's like there is no evidence of your religion before the 1800s so it isn't the real church of Christ. He said there isn't any evidence of the pre-existence so he doesn't believe in it. He wants us to teach him about the pre-existence out of the Book of Mormon only, so that should be an interesting next lesson because there isn't a whole lot in the Book of Mormon about the pre existence so that should be fun!
On Friday we had a lesson with our Robert and Stormy again. We gave both of them blessings because he was stressing out about life and she is getting surgery next month because she has COPD. So I gave him a blessing and Elder Gooch gave her a blessing. They really liked it and the Spirit was so obviously present after the blessings. It was a super cool experience!
Saturday night we were going to tract an apartment building in downtown Hopkins that is 11 stories tall. We figured we could have a "4th floor, last door" moment haha. So we get there and it's a lockout building, and this member from our ward was sitting in the lobby so she let us in! She told us that we weren't allowed to knock doors there because everyone who lives there was either handicapped or super old. So we were like, "Oh, ok, that sucks." So we sat in the lobby with her and her dog pal for like an hour and talked to people and got two return appointments with people there haha. This one guy named Jeff stopped and was like, "Are you teaching about Jesus?" And we were like, "Yessir!" And he told us he was an ordained minister and we gave him a Book of Mormon and he told us we could stop by anytime! So we are gonna stop by later this week!
My only down day this week was Wednesday morning. I was super like depressed I guess. I don't know why. I was just having lots of negative thoughts like why am I here? Nothing we do is helping anyone, etc. It was a rough morning for me. That afternoon like everything fell through again so we went tracting and got a few return appointments with some people. This one house had a super cute puppy on the porch so we were playing with it and it peed all over my leg and shoe right when the lady opened the door. So I was like, "Uh, hey! How's it going?!" And she just laughed and said it was good! We talked to her for a few minutes and she said we could come back and teach her husband and her so hopefully that goes somewhere! After we just did some work and talked to people I felt way better. Satan is really working on us all the time. The thing he is always trying to hit me with is getting down on myself and about the work we do. It's tough sometimes but it's a good opportunity for growth and learning to rely on the Lord in the work.
The weeks are zooming by and it's gonna be Thanksgiving and Christmas before we know it! I'm excited to see what the next two months have in store for the Minnetonka area! The work is picking up and it's exciting to see. I hope and pray all is well with everyone at home, at college and on missions. I pray for all of you daily and hope your lives are great! Thanks again for all the support and birthday wishes. It meant the world to me and makes the miles seem a lot shorter! I love and miss you all!
Much love,
Elder Beach
#10 #MavUp
My companion making "the bomb" pancakes!
Making pancakes.
Mav team gear from Coach Martin.
My fortune.
Opening my birthday gifts from home.
Me and my comp.
