Hello to everyone back home, at school and serving the Lord worldwide. Hope this email finds you well and happy! I will be district training this upcoming transfer so I'm excited to train and hopefully not corrupt my greenie haha just kidding. It should be fun and I'm really excited! This week has been really good so there's a lot to write about......
Monday was super fun last week! The whole Minneapolis zone came down with the APs to play basketball at the Lakeville chapel with us. We had some dang good games going, and it was way fun to play with all my old buddies from the Minneapolis zone. For lunch we all went to Costco. Costco is like Sam's Club but better haha. It was dang good! P day was super fun last Monday! After p day was done we decided to stop by a less active family I hadn't met yet. Their names are the Gardners. It snowed like 5 inches last Sunday and Monday so we shoveled off their porch and driveway and then shared a quick message with them. They are actually moving to Monomonie this Saturday, so we also offered to help them move! It was good. Then we went and tracted this street kind of by their house. It was in the way northern part of our area where we hadn't really been much. So we tracted for about an hour and a half and the very last door we knocked on this old lady answered and talked to us for a little bit. She said her husband wasn't super interested in our message, but she listened as we told her about the Book of Mormon. It was cool to see her literally change her mind as we taught her about the Book of Mormon on her doorstep. Haha it was a good way to cap off the night!
Tuesday was zone conference for most of the day and it was fun to see Elder Peterson and Elder Nielson and Vaughn from Minnetonka. The trainings were really good and all of us were asked to create a 4 minute lesson plan on repentance. Certain companionships were called on to teach their lessons to us, and it was really cool to see how each companionship taught repentance. The Mission President is always stressing to us that repentance is a change of heart and becoming more like our Savior. So if an investigator reads the Book of Mormon, that's part of repentance! It's super cool! It makes repentance way more appealing and real to me when it's not just like, "Oh, I committed adultery," or "I broke the Sabbath so I have to repent," and it's a big scary process. It is a process but it's changing our will to be in line with God's will and changing our hearts to be more like our Savior. It's awesome! I've really grown to love the repentance process the last few weeks as I've tried to live the Doctrine of Christ in my own life more and more. So at zone conference, Sister Jensen, this crazy old lady in our ward texted and said, "Call me about dinner." Nobody had signed up to feed us that night so we were just going to eat at our apartment. Then she texted and asked us if we were at zone conference and we said yes and then said we have a 4 pm and a 5 pm appointment right after zone conference. She never texted back, so we assumed she wasn't feeding us. So anyway, more on that story later! Right after zone conference it was like 3:45 pm, so we hurried and ran to our next appointment at 4 pm. The APs got me an EZ curl bar and 2 45's so I'm pretty set with weights stuff right now. Anyway, we had a great lesson with Daren! We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and really focused on repentance. He really opened up and told us some stuff he had done earlier in his life and how he had changed and repented of it. It was really emotional and spiritual and the Spirit was very strong there as he told us how he pleaded with God and his wife to forgive him for the things he had done wrong. I felt God's love so strongly for him as he told us this story. We invited him to be baptized on the 15 of April, which is the day before Easter, and he said he was "honored, and would talk to his wife and pray about it!" I'm really hoping he gets baptized soon! He's really ready and he's still plowing through the Book of Mormon, which is awesome! Then we had a lesson at 5 with Brady and Jonah, who are the recent converts. We taught about tithing and the word of wisdom. It was a super good lesson and Brother Seaman joint taught with us. He had a really good story about tithing and we committed them to start being full tithe payers. Brother Seaman and his wife, who isn't a member, took us to dinner afterwards at Perkins. It was really good! I had a healthy breakfast burrito and fruit. After dinner we did some tracting, but didn't see much success haha.
Wednesday morning we get up and do our normal morning routine and what not. At like 9 am we get a text from Sister Jensen, who I mentioned earlier. And she was super chapped at us because apparently she had gone to the store and bought us dinner and then expected us to be at her house at 5 pm or whatever. But we didn't know that because she never told us.... So she had called brother Ruff''s wife and just railed on us and said she was never feeding us again (which I'm totally fine with), but it was just poor communication all around with it and she is super sensitive. Brother Ruff just told us to apologize profusely to her at church, but she didn't show up so we didn't get to and she won't answer our calls or texts so we are sitting tight for now with that whole situation.
Wednesday ended up being a pretty solid day. We went and visited Bob Hosman in the old folks home. He is a hoot. He has dementia and tells us the same story every time we go over haha. He tells us how he met his wife and how they got married. It's such a cool story, so I'm good with listening to it each time we visit! He loves his wife so much, it's awesome. She passed away a few years ago and you can tell he misses her dearly. Anyway, when we first got there he pulls a $5 bill out of his wallet and tells us to go buy a hot dog. We were like, "Uh ok!" He says "It's the 4th of July, so go buy yourself a hot dog!" We thought he was kidding, but he thought it was the Fourth of July! It was pretty funny, but hey, we got to celebrate the 4th of July with him!🇺🇸 After we visited him we went and did some tracting in the southwest part of our area and taught two first lessons and gave away two Books of Mormon. We are getting really good at that, just people are always like, "Yeah, I'm not super interested," after they listen to our message and stuff. It's frustrating, but we are getting really good at teaching doorstep restoration lessons! After we tracted we had a lesson with the Bigboys finally. We read 2 Nephi 31 with them and committed them to come to church so they could partake of the Sacrament and feel of the spirit that comes from that as we do it with a humble and penitent heart. They said they would be there, so we were holding out hope. Justin still hasn't found a job yet, so continue to keep them in your prayers. We also found out they are in a custody battle with Justin's ex-wife to have his kids be with them. His ex-wife doesn't take care of them very well, I guess. Wednesday night we went tracting and talked to a lot of people, but no one was very interested again haha. Then we had a lesson with Cynthia and Brother Ruff. Joel was gone for work in North Dakota. We taught her the plan of salvation using my plan of salvation kit and it was a good lesson. She remembered a lot of it because she already knew some of it, but it was a good refresher for her! She has a really strong testimony of it too, which is awesome! It was a good lesson and a solid day overall
Wednesday ended up being a pretty solid day. We went and visited Bob Hosman in the old folks home. He is a hoot. He has dementia and tells us the same story every time we go over haha. He tells us how he met his wife and how they got married. It's such a cool story, so I'm good with listening to it each time we visit! He loves his wife so much, it's awesome. She passed away a few years ago and you can tell he misses her dearly. Anyway, when we first got there he pulls a $5 bill out of his wallet and tells us to go buy a hot dog. We were like, "Uh ok!" He says "It's the 4th of July, so go buy yourself a hot dog!" We thought he was kidding, but he thought it was the Fourth of July! It was pretty funny, but hey, we got to celebrate the 4th of July with him!🇺🇸 After we visited him we went and did some tracting in the southwest part of our area and taught two first lessons and gave away two Books of Mormon. We are getting really good at that, just people are always like, "Yeah, I'm not super interested," after they listen to our message and stuff. It's frustrating, but we are getting really good at teaching doorstep restoration lessons! After we tracted we had a lesson with the Bigboys finally. We read 2 Nephi 31 with them and committed them to come to church so they could partake of the Sacrament and feel of the spirit that comes from that as we do it with a humble and penitent heart. They said they would be there, so we were holding out hope. Justin still hasn't found a job yet, so continue to keep them in your prayers. We also found out they are in a custody battle with Justin's ex-wife to have his kids be with them. His ex-wife doesn't take care of them very well, I guess. Wednesday night we went tracting and talked to a lot of people, but no one was very interested again haha. Then we had a lesson with Cynthia and Brother Ruff. Joel was gone for work in North Dakota. We taught her the plan of salvation using my plan of salvation kit and it was a good lesson. She remembered a lot of it because she already knew some of it, but it was a good refresher for her! She has a really strong testimony of it too, which is awesome! It was a good lesson and a solid day overall
Thursday we did like 20 stop bys and tracted for a few hours. I honestly don't remember a whole lot haha. It was a pretty slow day though. We tracted for like 2 hours and didn't see a lot of success. Thursday was one of those really slow days you have as a missionary. Thursday night was much the same. We did stop bys of less actives and prospective Elders and then had one lesson with this guy named Anthony. He was a new investigator on our area book, so we set up an appointment with him. He is a little crazy. He is 23 and is a really cool guy. He is the kind of guy I would be friends with back home. But he thinks he's basically Jesus, so it's weird haha. He told us his whole life story basically and it was a little odd. He said one day he had a revelation to change his life cuz he partied and did drugs and stuff. So he got a bible and started reading it. He had a friend who was a pastor in a church. His pastor took him in his truck and said, "Are you ready to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior?" And then he was like, "Yes". He said he immediately heard God tell him he was forgiven and saved. So he thinks he is saved because he is a professed believer in Christ. He thinks he doesn't need to be baptized, but he believes the Bible to be the word of God. In the Bible it says, "Repent and be baptized in my name." So I'm not really getting his logic. Anyway, he thinks reading the Book of Mormon is against the word of God. He's read some of the Book of Mormon and he said God told him it isn't true. He basically thinks any thoughts he gets are from God. That's his problem. He told us he's cast out devils and has healed people by laying on of hands haha. He thinks the whole world has the Priesthood authority. So he has some different ideas. At the end of the lesson, he asked Brother Moerschel if he had Parkinson's. He said God told him the word Parkinson's. I was like what the heck? He asked if he could put his hand on Brother Moerschel's shoulder and heal him from Parkinson's, which he didn't have. I was seriously like what the heck is going on during his prayer. It was so weird. Thursday was just a long, weird day.
Friday we had weekly planning and then we did some stop bys and visited the Bradfords. Their two daughters were there and we got to talk to them for a while and it was cool. We showed the "Hope of God's light" Mormon message and they really liked it. We also talked about "The War Room" and "The Shack" movies and the messages in those haha. Then we had a quick dinner with the Gordhamers and then stopped by the Youngs to see how they were doing. They are moving to Idaho soon, so we helped them pack some stuff and they said to keep their son Lewis in our prayers because he is struggling with his testimony. He's like 16-17 years old. I feel like at that age it's normal to question the stuff you believe. It's just that that's when you need to work hard to find out for yourself what you believe. You have a solid foundation from what you've been taught your whole life and then you have to read and pray and battle to find out for yourself what you believe. You have to build your own testimony or you won't ever get one that is solid! We tracted for about 2 hours to end the night on Friday and it was great! We found this young dad named Nate whom we taught a first lesson to, and he accepted a Book of Mormon and said we could come back this week. We also found this Russian lady named Elena, who took a Book of Mormon and also said we could come back this week! It was a good night of tracting. God definitely rewards us for working hard. If we have faith, trust in the Lord and then just go to work, we can see miracles!
Saturday we had breakfast at the Bishop's house and did our correlation meeting. His son, Spencer, has some mental problems but he is the funniest, sweetest little kid ever. I always laugh when we go over because he loves us haha. After breakfast and stuff we did some more stop bys and talked to Curt Johnson who is the less active guy we met with a few weeks ago. He said he would come to the linger-longer on Sunday, but he didn't show up. We did windows of Heaven tracting on Saturday and ended up tracting this super rich neighborhood. It was like Minnetonka status and no one, like literally no one wanted to listen to us. Elder Wolfley wanted to dust his feet off at the end of the street. But we agreed it probably wasn't the best idea. Then we tracted this other street and talked to a ton of people. We talked to this guy named Matt who was in his car on the street and he said he believed in God but didn't really have a strong faith. He lost his dad two days earlier to pancreatic cancer. Elder Wolfley talked to him about that because his dad passed away from the same thing. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he accepted it and said he would read it. It was really cool! Then we met this old lady who said she thought the Bible is the word of God. I said ok! Do you know 2 Corinthians 13:1? She said no, so I read it to her and she was "ok...." then I told her that's why we need a Book of Mormon and also, because it teaches the true doctrine of Christ and is evidence that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God. She seemed to more or less accept that but didn't take a Book of Mormon. Then we met this guy who went to the U of U and was super nice but didn't want to hear anything. He said he had heard it all already but he was super nice! Then we had dinner with the Ds and it was basically the definition of chaos. Haha it was insane. We had a member lesson scheduled, but they totally forgot and were gone so we went to the Davis's and they had an archery range in their basement, so we shot arrows for like 15 minutes. Brother Davis said he had watched all 5 seasons of "Friday Night Lights" and he started like 3 weeks ago. Then we went to the Gretz to make a cake for their mom's birthday and for the linger-longer at church. It was fun and we shared a really good spiritual message about the refiner's fire. It was good!
Sunday, no one showed up to church, but Mike and Jaidyn Gretz showed up, so that was good! I also got to talk in church about "Hastening the Lord's work" and it went pretty well, I guess! Haha Sister Jensen didn't show up to church so we couldn't say sorry to her. I'm starting to get comfortable with the ward and them with me, so that's been great. Cynthia and Joel and Daren and the Bigboys didn't come, so it was kind of a bummer. It is seriously so hard to get people to church. The linger-longer was awesome, but the Eagan Sisters scheduled a baptism for 3 pm so our linger longer was like 30 minutes long. Bishop Clifford was a little upset because we had the linger-longer scheduled for like 3 months, and they scheduled the baptism last week. I don't know why they did it on Sunday, but it's good! After that we went tracting in these town homes by the old folks home. It was the most productive day of tracting I've ever had. We knocked 10 doors, taught 3 first lessons, got two new investigators and gave away 3 Books of Mormon haha. All that in an hour. It was crazy! Then we went to Stew Peterson's birthday party at the old folks home for a few minutes. He is Sister Davis's dad and is super funny and cool haha. Then Brother Stanich took us and the Lake Marion Elders to the President's fireside up in Bloomington. Daren was going to go, but texted us on the way there and said he had to stay with his family that night because he had to work Saturday and Sunday morning. We went anyway, and it was awesome!! I got to see Bishop Patterson and his wife and the Nelsons and the Fishes and the Ragans from the Minnetonka ward! I sat with Bishop and we talked for a long time haha. They said they want me to come back and serve there again, and I would kill to go serve in Minnetonka my last 1-2 transfers of my mission. That would be my dream come true. Sister Nelson and Brother Ragan spoke at it, so it was really good! It was so awesome to see everyone. Jeffrey and Steve Jordan were there too, and I talked to them for like 15 minutes each. It was great! Haha when we were doing refreshments in the gym this Sister, Sister Apadale comes running over and is like, "Elder Beach, hi!" And I was like, "Hey what's up?!" I looked at her name tag and I was like, "Oh, were you in my second grade class?" and she was like, "yeah!" So we talked for a while haha. It was funny the things we remember from 2nd grade. I also talked to Elder Dygert for forever because he is going home this Wednesday, which is crazy! Sunday was a pretty great day!
Today we went to the Lake Marion Elder's place to do laundry, and they got "Tangled" approved to watch, so we watched that while we did laundry haha. That was fun! Then I got a call from the APs saying that I will be district leader and training a new missionary in Apple Valley this transfer. That should be fun! I'm excited to train and I hope I can be a good trainer. It's been a great week and I've definitely seen the Lord's hand in our work. I've really learned to persevere through the grind and just work hard this transfer. I love you all and hope your week has been great. Shoutout to my amazing momma for her birthday last Saturday! Love you so much! Love you all! (Not in a weird way haha)
Much love,
Elder Beach
#MavUp #10
Elder Beach and Elder Dygert who goes home this Wednesday!
Making 2nd grade reconnections!
So great to see friends from the Minnetonka Ward!
Minnetonka Ward friends.
Making great connections!
Trying to remember how to do archery from my Webelos days...
