Merry Christmas!

     Hello and Merry Christmas to all my fam, friends, and coaches back home, at school, and serving worldwide! Hope everyone had a great Christmas with friends and family! I know I sure did! Christmas on the mission is awesome and I’m sad I just had my last one. We’ve had a busy week so let’s get going on that!

     Monday was our p-day, and we went to the Mall of America again as a district! I didn’t get anything except a flat penny from Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for my sisters for Christmas. We had a blast at the mall so that was pretty fun! Sister Gretz came to say what’s up to us as well and drop off some presents and some oranges for us! Thanks, Sister Gretz, for the awesome gifts! After that we took the Princeton Elders home and then had dinner and a lesson with the Johnson family. They live in Delano and were recently reactivated in the ward so they LOVE the missionaries. It was pretty crazy at their house. Their daughter was home from college, and she had a friend over too, so there was a lot of people there. Elders Woolley and Layton were just having a party with all of their kids and I was like, what is going on?? So we finally got things calmed down and were able to get things focused on the gospel haha. After that we stopped by a few less actives in Delano and Rockford, but the ones that were home said come back after the holidays, so we are going to do that for sure!

     Tuesday morning we went to Walmart and made our Christmas cards for everyone. There is a picture below to check out. We gave a bunch to the Hutch and Buffalo members and sent a few home to the fam and friends and stuff.  They’re pretty funny and now like the whole mission is copying our idea to make Christmas cards.  And a lot of them are like the exact same as ours, so we were like, what the heck? We also got all our Christmas presents put together to send home and got those mailed out. We did some stop bys up in Monticello and knocked some doors as well. Not a whole lot of success other than cleaning up the ward directory of who still lives in the area and who has moved! We knocked this street in Buffalo and found this guy who was a Lutheran and he was super nice and talked to us on the door step for like 10-15 minutes. We talked about the Book of Mormon with him and what it is. He had some super good questions and was like, “Props to you guys for being out in the cold trying to share this with people.” He said we could come back after the holidays as well since he said they were going to be pretty busy and weren’t sure when they were going to be home. Hopefully that can turn into something in the next few weeks! Haha the last house on the right side of the street was Elder Layton’s turn to talk at the door. So this pretty attractive girl comes to the door and he says, “Hey! Is your Mom or Dad here?” The girl was at least 20 years old. She was like “Uhhhh....” then Elder Layton just dives into this super awkward restoration lesson. She was just like “I’m not interested! Thanks though!” Elder Woolley and I were dying.  We were like, “Dude, why did you ask if her mom was home? She was like at least 20 years old.” He’s like, “Guys! I thought she was like 16!” It was so funny because she was definitely not 16. Pretty funny stuff, haha. After that we had dinner with the Snidarich family and it was a riot as usual. Elders Layton and Woolley ask every family we eat with now if I look like a monster and have a scary face. Sister Sniderich was like, “I just always wonder if you're mad at me or something because you always look pissed off.” Everyone thought that was pretty funny, including me. So I guess I do look like a monster or whatever because literally everyone says that I look scary. After dinner with them we stopped by the Lillers really quick and dropped off a Christmas card for them. We got to talk to Brother Liller for a little bit and his wife talked to us for like the whole time we were there, too, so that was good! After that we drove up to the Bradys to drop off a Christmas card to them because they were heading to California for the Christmas break. They got us water bottles and some protein bars that are super good for Christmas, so that was a score. Chase was also there and we set up a lesson with him for Wednesday night!

     Wednesday morning we cleaned up the apartment the entire morning because it was thrashed from baking Christmas goodies for people and from all our packages and getting our packages ready to send out. So we cleaned for about an hour and half and then had lunch at 11:30 am and got out the door around 12:30 pm. We had a meeting with Aaron Scherer because he literally calls and texts us every single day to ask if we can come over and play video games with him. We basically just tell him we are busy every day and we finally caved and were like, “Ok Aaron, we can come over for 45 minutes but we aren’t going to play video games. If you want to play cards we can do that, but we are going to talk about the gospel and no video games!” So we played this card game that Elder Meyer and I played with the Strams up in Sauk Rapids. It was fun, Aaron was very happy we came over haha. It’s hard for me in those situations because I feel like it’s a waste of time to just go play cards with Aaron and be his friend, but then I wonder what Christ would do if he was presented with the opportunity. I figured he would go love Aaron and be his friend and share the gospel with him. So we went over and played cards and were buddies with him and tried to share the gospel, but man, he gets off on some tangents, so it’s not always the best haha. After that we had a lesson with the Thibodeaus who live up in Clearwater. They are both converts and they have a son named Shennen who still lives with them because he has MS I think, and is in a wheelchair. He isn’t baptized, but I know his parents want him to be. So we talked to them and got to know them and he is really cool! He’s a good dude and has a good heart. I’m excited to work with him and hopefully we can help him progress towards getting baptized. After that we stopped at a frozen lake really quick so Elder Layton could run on it because he’s never been on a frozen lake before. We stopped by the Simonettes after that. They had no record except the Dad wasn’t a member of the church. So we stopped by and met Sister Simonette and helped her decorate her Christmas tree because it was huge and she couldn’t reach it. They have 3 girls, all of whom are married and out of the house. Brother Simonette wasn’t home from work yet, so we didn’t get to meet him, but she told us to come back another time and he would be happy to chat with us. So that was a good visit too. After that we stopped by the Marshals really quick before dinner and ended up taking a walk with Sister Marshal and their dog. We got to talk to her and we found out she joined the church about 6 years ago and now is kind of less active. She loves the missionaries, so we definitely need to work with their family. Brother Marshal wasn’t feeling super good so we didn’t see him unfortunately. After that we had some dinner really quick and then headed to the church to have a lesson with Chase.  It was really good, he had a lot of questions and we basically taught the restoration of the gospel and the plan of salvation. He’s a cool dude and we are all friends on Facebook now. After we got done with the lesson we ended up just sitting by the door at the church and talking for like 30 minutes. I felt like that was really good because he opened up a lot and he feels like we are just normal dudes he can trust so that was good!

     Thursday morning we had interviews up in St. Cloud with President Barney. He’s such a good guy! I love President and Sister Barney. They are awesome! So we did those and then we went to Boot Barn up in St. Cloud so I could get some boot leather conditioner. The winter and the salt here get pretty bad on your shoes and boots so you have to keep them good! After that we drove back down to Buffalo and then did some tracting and didn’t see much success there. I find it odd at Christmas that people almost seemed more turned off to our message about Christ. Something my dad said to me about being on a mission is when you go door to door and it’s colder than heck and no one wants to talk to you, it builds your own testimony more than anything. You constantly are saying to yourself, "I believe in this and I know this is true." When you’re doing that day after day, sharing your testimony day after day, it really solidifies what you know to be true! So that part has been really cool for me. After that Brother Ostvig took us to Culver’s for dinner. I got the $9 salad again. I got a different one, but it was super good! I really liked it. After that we had a lesson with Paul and Melissa. We usually just read the Book of Mormon with them. So this time we did that but we just straight up asked Melissa where she’s at with meeting with us and if she wants to get baptized. She said for now, she just wants to have us keep coming over and reading with them and that kind of stuff. She said she is comfortable where she’s at for right now. I was sad to hear that, but I’m hoping as we just keep reading the Book of Mormon with her and she keeps coming to church, she will realize this is the right path for her! After that we did some stop bys in Buffalo and struck out with all those, but it was 8:30 pm haha. 

     Friday we did some knocking in the morning and it was pretty good! We gave away a few Books of Mormon and had some good conversations with people. So I was happy we had some good success with that! After that we had some lunch and then started our weekly planning. Weekly planning was crazy this week because we had to get all our weekend planned and all the logistical stuff squared away because we were going to be in Hutch for Christmas Eve, part of Christmas, and then come back to Delano for Christmas dinner with the Polls. So we were coordinating who we were going to visit on Christmas Eve in Hutch and all that good stuff.  After we got done with that, we had dinner with the Koschadi family. Their son had some questions about heaven and hell, so we were able to talk about the Plan of Salvation with them and use the packet Mom sent us for Light the World. It was solid! So that was good. They didn’t come to church on Sunday, which was sad. I’m not sure what we are going to do with them because they just don’t keep their commitments. We will keep trying with them though! After that we had a Christmas caroling party at Bishop Grover’s house. It was super fun and we had a good time with some families from the ward! So that was really fun. I thought it was good to build that relationship with Bishop and Sister Grover because I haven’t felt like we’ve been super tight with them. But that helped a lot so I was glad we could go to that! After that it was about 9 pm so we had to head on home and call it a night.

     Saturday was crazy haha.  We knocked some doors for about an hour and half in the morning in Monticello and it was awesome. Heavenly Father gave us a Christmas present on Saturday. We gave out like 6 Books of Mormon and met some way cool people and had a great time! It was awesome! It was super cold and my hands were freezing when we got done. ️ But it was worth the success we had! After that we started baking cookies and banana bread for members we were visiting on Sunday. I started working on the Christmas video we made that was basically a 2017 highlight video. If you want to see it, hit up my Mom or Dad! It’s pretty good if I say so myself. We found out Elder Woolley's Christmas package got delivered in the morning but we weren’t there and it was in Maple Grove at the FedEx place. So we had to drive to Maple Grove and pick it up because we weren’t going to be anywhere near there until the 27th.  So that was a little crazy, but we got the package and all the goodies baked. After that we met with Brother Archibald at the church to help him out with some family history. We made a cool discovery: his grandpa came across the plains in the Thomas E. Ricks handcart company. Thomas E. Ricks is my great great great grandpa! So that was a way cool connection we made. So our ancestors came to Utah together and now we were in Minnesota together. It was pretty sweet! He told us he would be able to make it to church on Sunday so that was great to hear! After that we had some dinner and called it a night.

     Sunday was wild. Brother Archibald came to church and sat with us so that was great! He really enjoyed it and all the High Priests were all over him and they hit it off super quick! It was great! After church we had brunch with the De St. Joers down in Montrose. Brother De St. Joer is a cool dude. He does like FBI stuff on food. So he had some way cool stories about investigative things he does with food and all kinds of stuff like that. He is the only person in the US that does what he does and he basically invented his field of work. He also does some crazy carvings and showed us some of his carvings he does. He carved a chain out of a single block of wood. Look it up online. It’s so crazy. I don't know how people do that but he did! He’s quite the cool dude haha. After that we met with Brother Constans in Lester Prairie and Elder Woolley got the tour of the house. We dropped off a Christmas card for him and then dropped off a card to the Jacobs and then visited with Lloyd Thurn really quick. After that we went to the Munoz to drop off some banana bread for them and some cards and we ended up getting invited in to their Christmas Eve party and got a bunch of food and good stuff. Angel called my family and FaceTimed them haha. It was pretty funny.  My dad had a good time speaking some Espanol with Brother Munoz haha. We had a good time with them and I love their family so much! After the party we headed up to our apartment in Hutch and opened one present. We read the nativity in Luke 2 and Matthew 2 and then headed to bed! 

     I’ll write about Christmas in my email next week, but it was great to see my family! I love you guys and I’m glad we could talk and catch up for a while. Being on a mission has been great for me because it has made me realize that Christmas is about being with family, remembering the Savior and emanating his light to others. The presents and all that are cool, but it’s really about just being together with those you love and spending quality time together. I’m grateful I got to spend a few hours with my family over FaceTime. I’m so grateful to be out here sharing the gospel and serving those people of Minnesota. It’s been such a great 18 months for me, and I’m excited for the next 6. It’s going by so fast , it’s crazy. I know the church is true and the Book of Mormon is as well. I know Jesus Christ lives and he is our Savior and Redeemer. I’m grateful for His willingness to leave his Father's presence to come to earth and be born into the humblest of circumstances and do all that He did for us. His love for us is unfailing and unending. I know this to be true! Merry Christmas to all, I hope you all have a great New Year as well!

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Merry Christmas from the "Hutchallo" Elders!

With Brother Archibald at church.

The 3 Amigos!

Talking to my family via FaceTime!

Elders Woolley and Layton talking to their families on Christmas.

Walking on the frozen lake.

The Munoz family Christmas Eve dinner.

Elders Woolley and Layton opening their gift on Christmas Eve.

It's starting to get cold!  -5 degrees.

Helping at a soup kitchen on Christmas. 

Christmas party.

'Twas the week before Christmas!

     Hello to all my fam, friends, and coaches back home, at college and serving the Lord around the globe. Hope this email finds you well and enjoying life and this awesome Christmas time of year! I hope you all have been able to participate in the #LightTheWorld campaign on LDS.org. It is awesome! Just wanted to thank my mom for sending us a ton of gifts to use for the campaign. I will be sharing a few stories about how we’ve been able to use them.  This week has been pretty good, not a whole lot going on as far as finding new people. Just in kind of a slow stretch with that, but we’ve been able to contact a lot of less actives and stuff so that’s been great!

     Last Monday we had a p-day and just went to the church and played some ball (basketball and football), and that was pretty fun! I still got the baller skills going in both of those haha.  So that was good! We did some emailing and went to Walmart and Target and walked around for a while just killing time. We didn’t have a dinner so we decided to do that at 8 pm because if you don’t have stuff that’s the hardest time to fill. Our appointment with Paul and Melissa fell through and so did our one with Dan Adomnicai.  Buffalo has a lot of investigators but none of them are solid, so I’m guessing we probably are going to drop them and start from the ground up again. I’ve done that in pretty much every area I’ve served in, so I’m excited to do it again! So we ended up doing some finding Monday night and then stopped by a few less actives we didn’t know. We stopped by this one guy named Marcus. He was super nice and let us in. He is currently Catholic now, I don’t know why. He said he grew up in the LDS church in Arizona but didn’t really stay active. So a few years ago he and his wife converted to Catholicism. He told us if he would’ve been baptized in any other church (Lutheran, Methodist, etc) the Catholic church said he didn’t need to get baptized again into their church. It just counted already. He said since he was baptized Mormon and we don’t baptize "in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” he had to be rebaptized into the Catholic church. I was like, “We do baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.” He’s like, “But you don’t believe in the trinity so it’s different. I don’t fully understand it but I believe in it.” I was just like “Alright, whatever you say!” Then he started talking about the how both churches have the Priesthood and I was like, “Well, there’s technically only 2 churches who can CLAIM they have the Priesthood and it’s the Catholic and LDS church.” He didn’t really get my drift, but it’s cool, he can believe whatever he wants. He’s a super nice guy! After that we had some fish, brown rice, and grilled peppers. 

     Tuesday we did some tracting in Monticello and it was pretty chilly haha. We knocked this huge cul de sac and like nobody was home and the only people who answered were kinda crazy.  We had two huge fat dudes answer the door with no shirt on and that was pretty funny.  And then like one of the last doors we knocked this girl answered and told us she was a nurse and went to school in the cities and her parents were ministers at a church in Monticello. She was super nice and took a Book of Mormon and said she would read it and pray about it. So I’m really hoping she does.  After that we headed home and had some lunch and stuff. After that we had a lesson with Raul at his house. He is a dude from Cuba who’s been meeting with missionaries for years and has never gotten baptized or quit smoking or made any effort to quit smoking. He had an opportunity to move out of the place he is living into a member's house for $500, but the people he lives with dropped his rent from $600 to $400 just so he would stay there. They always buy him cigarettes and stuff. So we talked to him about maybe moving into the member's house and asked him if spending an extra $100 a month would be worth it to help him quit smoking because he won’t be around that, and having people buying him cigarettes all the time. He basically said no because it will be too hard and it won’t help him quit smoking. So I don’t know what we are going to do with him. There’s so many people here that aren’t progressing at all.  Missionaries have been teaching them consistently for months and years. It’s kind of tough for us because we come in and feel like we have a bunch of investigators but none of them are progressing. It’s kind of a bummer. But anyway, we had a good lesson with him and tried to help him realize he needs to quit smoking. After that we had like 3 stop bys in a row that we got let in and got to talk and share a Christmas message with them! So that was awesome! We stopped by this guy named Kurtis. He had no info on his teaching record except that he was a member. So we stopped by and he let us in and we found out his wife isn’t a member but is kind of not super interested in the church right now. He said he wants to get back into activity in the church but his wife isn’t super interested so he is kind of playing it cool right now. We were able to share a Christmas Mormon message called, “Wise Men Still Seek Him” and invited them to do things that would help them remember the Savior this time of year. They were super cool so I hope we can help them in the future! After that we stopped by this lady named Sister Tandrian. She also had no info on her teaching record. So we pulled up and she was outside putting up some Christmas lights so we helped her with those and then went inside and shared the Mormon message we shared with Kurtis with her and her significant other. They really liked it and she said missionaries used to come over a lot and she would feed them quite often but they hadn’t been coming over much anymore. So hopefully we can get back over there more! After that we had some dinner and called it a night!

     Wednesday morning I went and got an x ray on my shoulder because the insurance needs me to do an x ray before I can get an MRI which is kind of dumb, but it is what it is.  So I got to talk to the nurse doing my x rays quite a bit about missionary work and the church because she didn’t know much about it! So that was cool.  After that we had district meeting and then had some lunch. After that we went up to Clearwater and stopped by like pretty much everyone in the town and didn’t find anyone new or anything haha. We found that several people had moved but that was about it.  After that we knocked some doors for a while and then went and picked up some money for dinner from the Marschels and then went to Subway. Subway is my fav, I love it haha. After that we met with Brother Archibald at the church and helped him get his Patriarchal blessing requested on lds.org. We also did some family history work with him and got his whole side of his family tree filled out back like a couple hundred years haha. After that we got invited to do a YM activity where we did a Q&A with the YM where they asked us like basically any question they wanted about being a missionary, preparing for a mission, etc. It was really fun, and I think it helped them a lot. I don’t ever remember doing stuff like that for young men’s, but I would’ve liked to do that before I left on a mission. So it was really good, and Elder Layton was a hoot, so everyone loved that haha. He’s the comic relief of the trio. 

     Thursday was a great day! We went to Willmar and Hutch for the day and had some great successful lessons there. We met with Sister Christensen in the morning in Cokato. She is a less active lady in the Hutch Branch and so we got to meet with her and shared a Christmas message with her and gave her a little nativity that my mom sent. Mom, those were awesome! We’ve given them out to less actives and investigators and they’ve been a hit.  So we visited with her and then drove to Litchfield and had some lunch at Subway again haha, and then stopped by Rocky in Litchfield. She’s the older lady Elder Layton and I found our first transfer in Hutch. She let us in and we taught her the whole restoration lesson and it was great! She said she felt really good about everything we taught and we set up a time to come back in 2 weeks, so I’m way excited to teach her some more. We gave her the little nativity gift and she loved it! After that we headed out to Willmar to teach a lady named Diana, who was a referral we received who wanted a Book of Mormon and Bible. So we got there and she let us in and we were able to teach her the whole restoration, too! She was born Catholic and is currently a Jehovah's Witness and had some interesting ideas.  I’m not sure how much she really understood about the lesson.  Like as we were teaching, we would be ask her questions and stuff and her answers were like way off topic and weird haha.  But she said she wanted to read the Book of Mormon, so I’m hoping she can do that too! We also have an appointment set up with her for 2 weeks as well.  After that we headed back to Litchfield to meet with Angie, the lady we knocked into last week. She said they were really busy and couldn’t meet that night but said we could come back after Christmas. We gave her a little nativity thing and she loved it as well! After that we drove back to Monticello to meet with a less active member we found named Kristin. Her family isn’t members but are really cool! She’s married and they have 4 kids and we got to meet with her, her husband Kevin, and her kids, Alaska and Alton.  It was super good! We taught them the Plan of Salvation using the Plan of Salvation package my mom sent, so that was awesome! The kids helped us put it all together and loved it.  It was great. They are definitely someone we need to work with! After that we headed home and had some dinner and called it a night! 

     Friday we did some finding down in the southern part of Buffalo city in some newer developments, but didn’t have much luck down there unfortunately.  We did help a lady catch a stray dog that was injured though,so that was kinda fun!  After that we had some lunch and then did weekly planning with some pool breaks in between.  Weekly planning is so mentally draining. You have to take breaks like every hour or you die basically haha. You’re just so focused on who you’re going to work with, where you’re going to be, when, dinners, what you’re going to teach, coordinating between two areas, etc. It's just draining haha but it’s good because it makes weeks go much more smoothly! After we got done we stopped by a referral down in Montrose that we got a while back. We had previously set up appointments to drop off a Bible and Book of Mormon and she wouldn’t ever be there when we’d go. Same thing happened Friday night, so that was a bummer, but it is what it is! After that we had dinner with the Elwoods. Weirdest thing happened to me while we were there: I just was sitting there eating dinner and I just got super hot. Like I was dripping sweat so I took my sweater off and went out on their back deck to cool off. So I was out there for like 5 minutes and was still hot. Then I just started getting freezing cold so I came back inside and was freezing for like 10 minutes then got way hot again, then just went back to normal. It was super weird.  I don't know what happened, but it hasn’t happened since then, so that’s good. After that we went and saw the Aeblys in Delano. They’re a less active family that loves the Elders. We stopped by and they let us in and it was a riot. Sister Aebly was just telling us all the stuff going on in her life and then Brother Aebly comes in and just starts roasting all his kids and we are just like, what the heck is going on? While all this chaos is happening, their two dogs are fighting and trying to eat each other and then the other one just sits right in front of me and stares at me but won’t let me pet it. Such a funny experience! Then they just were like, “Oh crap! We gotta go to gymnastics! We are way late!” So they almost just left us in the house and took off.  Pretty nuts! We are going to their house on Christmas evening to spend some time with them, so that should be fun! 

     Saturday was a good day, too! We had a lunch with the Bradys and their oldest daughter Natalie has a friend named Chase who is checking out the church, so he was there, too! Elder Layton was the star of the show again and had everyone in tears with his Nacho Libre impressions and Napoleon Dynamite impressions. Sister Brady loved it haha.  We taught them a really simple restoration lesson and asked Chase if he had any questions. He has been to church once already and the Bradys are way solid member missionaries, so we figured he’d been taught some stuff already about the Book of Mormon and the restoration. He said he didn’t have any but he showed up at church the next day with a big old list of questions for us. We are meeting this week to answer them! So that’s been a huge miracle here for us, and hopefully Chase can keep progressing! After that we did a bunch of stop bys to people nobody knew and met some crazy people. Like insane haha.  So we stopped by this one guy and he just goes off about how the church is the most corrupt thing, and he doesn’t believe in the church's stance on gay marriage, and “Can’t support a church that spends so much money on temples but not any on humanitarian aid.” I almost said, “Didn’t the church just donate over a billion dollars to the hurricane relief in Florida and the Caribbean?” But I figured it wouldn’t do any good. The dude was pretty set that the church was not for him and some day we would realize it isn’t true.  Poor guy! After that we stopped by this lady that apparently is a hoarder lady. Her whole house is full of stuff and she literally has tunnels to walk through. We met in this old trailer in her yard that was freezing cold and she talked to us for an hour and half straight about how the ward and county was in cahoots to kick her out of her house. It was pretty nuts some of the stuff she was talking about, but we just listened and then had a prayer with her. She was very happy we came to visit her! We will be taking her the socks my mom sent us because she definitely needs them! After that we went to a gas station to get some gas and hot chocolate. The hot chocolate regular flavor thing was broken so they gave us free any size hot chocolate and I got some mint hot chocolate and it was so good! Haha tasty stuff.  After that we knocked some doors and found some pretty cool people. We met this one Hispanic dude outside shoveling his driveway, so we stopped to help him and he was super nice and declined the offer, but we gave him a Book of Mormon and our card and he said we could swing by this week and share some more with his family! So that was pretty cool! Kinda sad story: Brother Archibald called us Saturday morning to tell us his wife had passed away. She had been in a nursing home for like 2-3 years and wasn’t doing super hot. We met with him at the church Saturday night and found that his Patriarchal blessing had been found and was available on his lds.org account. He was able to read it for the first time in 15 years and was in tears as he did so. It was a tender mercy that it happened to get there so quickly and seemingly right when he needed it most. He said there were a lot of things in it he really needed to read at that moment. It was really cool but super sad, too. He seemed to be doing pretty well all things considered. The High Priests Group Leader visited him Sunday after church to check in on him, too.

     Sunday was great! Chase came to church so that was sweet! Brother Brady got called as the Elder's Quorum President, so he’s the man now. President Baker came down to set him apart, so I got to talk to him for a while. He’s such a good dude. I love President Baker! He was in the Sauk Rapids Ward when I was up there. He’s the St. Cloud Stake President right now. So after church we had lunch really quick and then finished up our stop bys in Monticello that we didn’t get to the night before. We met some pretty nice people and found a few people who didn’t live at the address listed for them. We stopped by this one girl who was listed as a member but was age 12-17 and no one else was listed as living with her. So we stopped by and her sister answered the door. Her sister was like 20ish and was super nice but was like, “I have no idea if she’s a member or not so I’ll have her give you a call!” We got to talk to her sister a little bit so that was good! Definitely need to get in there and figure out what the heck is happening there haha.  After that we headed down to Delano and knocked some doors for about an hour. We gave out 2 Books of Mormon and one lady was super nice and seemed pretty interested so that was good. After that we had dinner at the Poll's house and then went out chiming with them to some less actives and non members in Delano and Rockford. That was way fun! We had a blast with them and the Sniderich family.  We talked to sister Poll after about the hoarder lady (Sister Reisewitz) and she said that people had been trying to help her and visit her for like 10 years and it was just hard because she was hard to work with and easily got offended. She said many, many efforts had been made by the ward to fellowship her and stuff, so I’m probably going to take Sister Poll's word for it because she is on the ball with stuff like that. We stopped by a few less actives after that in Rockford but most of them were like, “It’s 8:30 pm! Come back earlier!”  If you don’t have anything going on at 8 pm as a missionary in the winter in Minnesota, it’s kinda rough because people tend to basically hibernate in the winter haha. ️ But it’s all good! Part of the fun of being a missionary!

     I’ve done a lot of thinking about a few verses of scripture in 3 Nephi 27 that I’ve read this week: 

9 Verily I say unto you, that ye are built upon my gospel; therefore ye shall call whatsoever things ye do call, in my name; therefore if ye call upon the Father, for the church, if it be in my name the Father will hear you;

10 And if it so be that the church is built upon my gospel then will the Father show forth his own works in it.

11 But if it be not built upon my gospel, and is built upon the works of men, or upon the works of the devil, verily I say unto you they have joy in their works for a season, and by and by the end cometh, and they are hewn down and cast into the fire, from whence there is no return.

     In Branch Council in Hutch we had a good discussion about these verses and I’ve pondered them a lot recently. Verse 11 really sticks out to me. Many people we talk to say, “Oh, I’ve already got a church. I’m comfortable in my faith or I’m comfortable where I’m at right now.” Basically saying I have joy in my works for a season. Everyone can have joy in their works for a season. But by and by the end cometh and they are hewn down and cast into fire. If we are in the church of Jesus Christ, we are built upon his gospel, and his Priesthood. We will always have joy in our works, in this life and the next life, because of the fact that we are built upon his church and his gospel. That was something that really hit home with me. You can find joy anywhere for a short amount of time. But when the trials come or the end comes, the only place we can find true, lasting joy is in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I know this is His church and is led by living prophets and apostles. I know the Book of Mormon is true and is the keystone of our religion and our testimonies of Christ.  I love serving here in Minnesota and inviting others to partake of this gospel and come unto Christ and be perfected in him! It is truly amazing. I love you all, have a great week and Merry Christmas!

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

The three amigos!

Christmas in Minnesota!

Checking out all the decorations.

At the Mall of America.  I got my boots for Christmas!

Near an elk ranch.

Elder Woolley - the one with the nice face... :)

Tis the Season

     A big hello to all my fam, friends, and coaches back home, at school, and serving the Lord around the world! Hope this email finds you all doing well and having a wonderful Christmas season so far! I’m loving being on a mission right now and being able to share the Christmas spirit with everyone! It’s awesome and I’m thoroughly enjoying it! This week has been really fun and we’ve had a lot of cool miracles so let’s get it started:

     Monday was P-day so we played some catch and basketball at the church and did some laundry and stuff like that. We also went to Target and walked around and looked at stuff. Elder Layton got some Vikings gear for his bro and I had a $10 gift card I had found in my bag, so I got a Christmas present for the fam, too! After we got all our laundry done we had a lesson with Dan Adomnicai and taught him the law of chastity and word of wisdom. We talked about the word of wisdom a lot because he drinks coffee so he needs to get over that. He said if God wants him to he will! We send him stuff on Facebook almost every day and help him stay focused and all that, but he still just doesn’t seem quite there. He didn’t come to the Christmas party or church this week so that was a sad day.

     Tuesday we had a blitz exchange with the DLs from Princeton. So they blitzed our area. I went with Elders Layton and Loveland. We went out to Willmar and Litchfield because we had some media referrals who wanted some bibles and Books of Mormon. We stopped by a bunch of less active people in the Buffalo area who lived out in the sticks on the way out. We found out several of them now attend other churches, which is kind of sad.  But everyone has their agency so all we can do is invite and let them know they’re loved! The drive from Buffalo to Willmar is like an hour and half or so haha, so we spent a lot of time in the car, but it was well worth it! When we got there we stopped by the first bible referral we got. She lived in this apartment building so we knocked on her door and she didn’t answer. So we called her and she told us to leave a Bible and a Book of Mormon on her front step and then we set up an appointment for this Thursday with her! So that was sweet! After that we stopped by a few formers in Willmar because there is literally 500 formers in their area. It’s crazy.  So we picked one street where there were like 6 people and knocked on all their doors. So the first one we pull up and there’s a car with a Utah license plate on the car and we are like, “No way.” So we knocked on the door and the person it said lived there didn’t, but this lady named Hayley lived there and we asked her about the car. She said it was her boyfriend's car and his mom was a Mormon and lived in Ogden! It was crazy.  So we also set up an appointment with her for this Thursday as well! We gave her a Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet to check out before we come over. After that we stopped by a few more, but nobody was home. So we then headed to Litchfield because we had dinner with the Larsen's that night. We had about 15 minutes before dinner, so we knocked some doors like 2 streets east of theirs. We knocked a few doors and this one door we knocked on I recognized it. We had offered to help the lady there with raking leaves like 2 months ago on like my first day in Hutch. We decided to knock her door again and it was awesome! She listened intently to a restoration lesson and took a Book of Mormon. We also were able to share the #LightTheWorld video with her and invited her and her family to participate in it. She said we could come back this Thursday evening as well, so hopefully all our appointments work out this Thursday. After that we had dinner with the Larsens and it was a party! Their kids get so crazy whenever we come over haha. Sister Larsen made some homemade meatballs and brown rice with grilled squash and green beans. It was so good! The grilled squash was bomb and you put a little bit of brown sugar on it and it was money. So that was awesome! I love the Larsens! After that we had to drive back up to Buffalo because Elder Loveland and Stevens had to head back up to Princeton for something. After that we stopped by a few people in Buffalo, but not much luck unfortunately haha. 

     Wednesday morning we did a district finding hour so we did some tracting in Monticello. We knocked for about an hour and half and didn’t find like anyone. We talked to like 5 people the whole time haha. It was also like 5 degrees, so it was kinda cold, too. ☃️  But we worked hard and busted our buns! After that we went to ALDI and got some groceries because we were running low on the food. After that we headed home and got a quick lunch and then did a bunch of stop bys in the south part of our area. We found out a lot of people had moved, so we got all of that stuff updated. We stopped by this dude named Chris Heule who was less active. We knocked on his door and he’s like, “Elders! Come on in!” So we went in and talked to him for a few minutes. He said he wasn’t part of the church anymore but would always let us in and would love to talk to us. He goes to some other church now, not sure which one.  But anyway, he’s super nice and was like more than happy to have us over and said we could come back another time and possibly had some service for us to do so that was sweet! After that we met with Aaron Schere. He’s an interesting guy to say the least. He’s friends with Kyle Simonette, who’s the member we do laundry at his house. I’m pretty sure Aaron Schere lives in a group home and all he does is play video games and mix music. He’s like all the way there, he’s just kinda weird haha. So anyway, we show up and he has a poker table set up for us to play cards. So we played some Texas hold ‘em poker for a while and I tried to talk to him about gospel stuff as we were playing, but it just wasn’t really happening. Then he tries to get us to play Xbox with him because I guess some missionaries here right before us would just go over and play Xbox with him. So we were like, “Uh yeah, we actually got to get going haha”. So we peaced out of there pretty quick. I don’t think we will be teaching him much because he just doesn’t seem interested in the gospel. The missionaries basically have just been buddies with him. Like they would just go over and hang out and so he thinks that what missionaries are for.  After that we made some dinner of fish, brown rice, and peppers. Our go to dinner. After that we made the rice Krispy Yule log haha. Our kitchen was trashed after but it’s all cleaned up now.

     Thursday we had zone conference in Brooklyn Park which is about 45 minutes from Buffalo. The ZLs texted us at 7:30 am and were like, “We are worried you don’t have a ride for zone conference.” We didn’t text them back at all until like 8:20 am and we said, “OH SHOOT! That was today??” The conference started at 9 am.  At 8:20 am we were well on our way haha. They immediately called us and were like, “You guys didn’t know it was today?” And they were freaking out a little bit. I was like, “Bros, we are just yanking your chain”. So that was pretty funny! They haven’t done the best job of communicating what’s going on or when or where things are so I hope they got the hint from that little joke haha. Zone Conference was really good and President Barney gave a way good training about the reason for the season and why we celebrate the birth and life of Jesus Christ at Christmas time. I really enjoyed it. We also got to watch the Polar Express, so that was sweet! After Zone Conference was over we headed back home and avoided the rush hour traffic so that was good. We had dinner with the Bowles at the church and then helped them clean the church before the Christmas party. The one toilet in the bathroom was nasty and we couldn’t get the smell out haha. It was nasty haha. After that we stopped by a few part member families and got an appointment set up with this one lady named Kristi and her family! I’m excited to visit with them on Tuesday this week! So that should be cool! 

     Friday I had to go to the doctor in the morning for my shoulder. It’s been bugging me for like 6 months. The one I hurt during football season my senior year. The sports medicine doctor there wanted to do an MRI to check out what’s up with it. He said I probably have a torn labrum, but he said he doubts I’ll need surgery, so that’s good news! I have my MRI on Wednesday and my meeting with the doctor on Friday to talk about what’s up with everything. After that we had some lunch and then weekly planned. We did a much better job weekly planning this week and making sure we had everything coordinated between areas and stuff like that. Last week we didn’t do quite as good of a job, so we really buckled down and did a good job this week. After that we went and knocked some doors and met this lady who was friends with the Herdklotz in the Buffalo ward. She also knew the Stake Patriarch, Brother Hill, up in St. Cloud. So she was very knowledgeable about the church! She actually let us in and made us some hot chocolate and we shared the Christmas video with her, so that was sweet! We are definitely going back sometime this week and see if she’s interested in learning more or coming to church and stuff.  After that we had some dinner and took the Rice Krispies log to Kyle Simonette and his kids. He’s a single dad so I gave him my Wendy’s gift card because I figured they could use it! So we took the Rice Krispies Yule log to them the gift card and they were super appreciative of it. His daughter was looking at us and was like, “Elder Woolley, you’re pretty cute. You have a nice face. Elder Beach, you have a scary face and look like you want to kill me. Elder Layton, you just look funny!” We were dying. It was so funny. We got thug lifed but it was pretty funny haha. After that we went to Montrose and Waverly and did a few stop bys and we got to visit with the Koschade family. They’re less active and have a kid that hasn’t gotten baptized yet. Brother Koschade doesn’t really care much for the church. He got baptized and basically went less active. Sister Koschade is pretty interested in coming back to activity, I’m just not sure why they don’t. They are fellowshipped super well by the ward and we visit them pretty often I guess. So anyway, hopefully we can help them come back into activity and get their boy baptized, too. 

     Saturday was such a fun but crazy day! We had the Buffalo Ward Christmas party at 9 am and we had a great turnout! The Hinckles, a less active family working to get active and back to the temple, came to it and Brother Archibald came too! He said it was the first time in 35 years he’s been to a church building for a church event haha. He really hit it off with Brother Hinckle, and on Sunday at church, Brother Hinckle grabbed us and said the next time we teach Brother Archibald to bring him along because they really connected well and he wanted to help him get back to church! It was sweet! After that we headed home and got some stuff to take down to the Hutchinson Christmas party. We were going to do a bunch of stop bys on the way down. We stopped by this lady in Howard Lake who was an investigator and so was her son. She’s blind and her son just had his leg amputated from complications of diabetes. We visited with her for a while and shoveled her sidewalk and front porch off for her. She said we could come back and teach them in January because they were going to Wisconsin for Christmas and New Years. So that was good! After that we stopped by the dude that me and Elder Harper found in Howard Lake. They were just heading out, but he said we could come by after the new year as well, so that was cool, too.  haha Now things get a little wild: so we had this member family we were going to stop by and Elder Woolley didn’t know if they were active or not. So we pull up to their house and it’s on a dirt road. He pulls off to the side of road and there’s a ditch that’s completely full of snow but we couldn’t tell that. So we basically buried the two right tires in the snow and got stuck. So they came out and pulled us out haha. We had no clue who they were. I’d never met them and Elder Woolley didn’t seem to know them at all. So they invited us in and they’re having a big party for their son who’s going into the marine corps on Monday. So they gave us a bunch of food and some Coke Zero and stuff and now we know they’re active haha. It was pretty crazy how it all happened! After that we headed to Hutch and helped get the party set up and everything. We had a taco bar that the Munoz family made and it was super good! I made a taco salad that was bomb. We had a great turnout at that, too! We had a few part member families and some less actives show up and we got to talk to all of them. It was great! There was this one elderly lady that was sitting by herself and I didn’t know who she was so I went and sat by her and started talking to her. Turns out I knew her name, just not who she was! She lives in the Larsen’s basement apartment. I found out she is the ex-wife of a member in the ward who is remarried and so that causes a little friction. But she was super quiet and I talked to her and found out she loves Longmire and White Collar, so we talked about that for like 15 minutes haha.  So that’s was awesome! She’s a cool lady! It was such a good party and I love the Hutchinson Branch members so much. They’re awesome! 

     Sunday we went to church in Buffalo. We had Ward Council before church and it was really good. It’s kind of hard because I feel like Elder Woolley doesn’t really know a whole ton of people, so basically we are still getting to know everyone in the ward. It’s good though because it’ll force me to talk to everyone! Church was really good and both the talks in Sacrament Meeting were about missionary work and sharing the gospel. Paul and Melissa both came to church and Natalie Brady brought a friend named Chase who was super cool and loved church! Everyone welcomed him with open arms and fellowshipped him super well. He’s like 21 and a junior at the U of M. He’s a super nice dude and I’m hoping we can start teaching him soon! The Brady’s are going to keep working on him. After church we had lunch with the Ostvigs! They are pretty cool and Brother Ostvig told us some super funny stories from his mission in Germany. I was dying at some of them haha. After that we headed up to Monticello and stopped by a few people and knocked some doors. We haven’t really found as many solid people this week knocking doors. I’m not sure why. I’ve been trying to help Elders Layton and Woolley stay focused and not get all crazy and goofing around when we knock doors because it just doesn’t work to be acting like an idiot and then knock on someone’s door and represent the Savior. It just doesn’t work. So we’ve been working on staying more focused in between houses and even on people's door steps! After that we headed down to Delano and stopped by some less actives. We met this less active named Brother Liller. He is really cool and loves the missionaries. His wife doesn’t like any religion of any kind for some reason, but they let us in and gave us a few muddy buddies they had just made haha. We visited with Brother Liller and he had actually been in St. George this July like right before Elder Layton had left to come out here. So they hit it off talking about St. George and stuff. They had a couple huge mastiffs, so I played with them a little bit haha. We shared a scripture in 3 Nephi with them and left with a prayer. He came outside with us after and told us he had been praying earlier that day that God could put someone in his life to help him make a decision about work and then we showed up that night! He said it was pretty cool.  I thought that was awesome. Being an answer to someone’s prayer is pretty sweet! After that we headed home and had dinner and called it a night!

     I’m loving being on a mission right now. I feel like every day my urgency to share the gospel is increasing because I only have like 6 months left! I want to just talk to everyone and share what we have with them. It’s such a wonderful time of year to be in the field and sharing the gospel! I love that I can be a part of it and be able to invite others to come unto Christ! It truly is a wonderful work! I love you all and hope you have a great week and enjoy spending time with family and friends this holiday season. Love you all!

Much love, 

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

The Three Amigos at Zone Conference.

Hanging out with a deer head...

We met some turtles this week!

Exchanges!

Working hard - even in the cold!

Poker anyone?

Ward Christmas party.

My Christmas present - cowboy boots!

Our awesome dinner!

After we got stuck in the snowbank...