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!
