Howdy to all my family, friends, and coaches back home in Cache Valley, serving the Lord and at college! I hope you all had a great week and are enjoying the start of summer. The weather here has started getting hot and muggy once again as summer rolls in, so we've been sweating a lot this week haha!
Last Monday we did our laundry and then went to our ward BBQ for Memorial Day! It was really fun and we met our Bishop's friend who went to Wisconsin and loved Wisconsin football. So naturally, we talked about football for a good 10-15 minutes haha. The Flake family also had a family they were friends with that came. They had met the missionaries before so it was cool to talk to them for a little bit! Daren and his family cancelled last minute so that was a bummer. After that we went to the Burnsville chapel and played some basketball for a few hours. Jaidyn and Ariana Gretz came and played too, and the Sisters actually played this week too so that was fun! After we played basketball the Zuis family from the Lake Marion ward had us and the Lake Marion Elders over for dinner. We didn't have a dinner so they invited us to come. They feed the missionaries every Monday. They are hilarious and it was fun to have dinner with them.
Tuesday we had district meeting and it was pretty good! Brother Pratt from our ward asked us to give Sister Davis a blessing at the hospital. She had kidney failure and has a bunch of very severe health issues. She wasn't supposed to live through last week, but she's doing better now. Priesthood power works! Her daughter isn't a member but loves the church and appreciates all the help Brother Pratt and other members give them. After that we did service at Prince of Peace. Literally insane this week haha. There was almost 40 orders, so we filled orders from noon until about 1:45 straight with no breaks. It was crazy! Right after we had a lesson with Daren! Brother Flake came with us to joint teach and that was super good! We read D&C 89 and talked about the word of wisdom and blessings associated with it. Daren liked it a lot and actually already lives the word of wisdom haha. So that was good! Brother Flake and Daren talked most of the lesson so that was good! We've taught Daren almost everything, so just building relationships with members is what he needs at this point. We are going to start teaching out of the Gospel Principles book now because we've taught everything out of Preach My Gospel already. It was good though! Elder Sherwood had a $10 haircut coupon at Sports Clips that expired on Tuesday, so he went and got his haircut. A member from the Cottage Grove Ward was there and paid for his haircut haha. It was pretty nice of him. Then we had dinner at the Lewises! I love the Lewises. Brother Lewis made salmon and it was dang good. Dagan, their youngest son had a Chewbacca mask and a fart gun from Despicable Me so he was fart gunning everyone the whole time at dinner haha. All their kids wanted us to jump on the trampoline with them after dinner so we did that for like 5 minutes. It was fun! I'm gonna miss them when I get transferred. Brother Lewis and Brother Hawley came out with us for prospective Elder visits Tuesday night. Brother Lewis and I visited the Wades. We had a really good visit and Brother Lewis and Brother and Sister Wade hit it off really well. I basically ended up playing with their dog Scout while they talked haha. It was really good though, and Brother Lewis said he was going to try and make himself their home teacher!
Wednesday we did exchanges with the ZLs and I went with Elder Kershaw to Crystal Lake. It was pretty fun. We basically did stop bys all day. At about 3 pm, we stopped by this guy who lived in an apartment building. There was a family moving out in the parking lot and we offered to help them. So they accepted our help and we helped load up their U-HAUL truck and actually unloaded it at their new house that was about a mile away. They were very appreciative we helped out and they told Elder Kershaw he could stop by with Elder Kemberling and visit with them! So service is an awesome missionary tool! We were supposed to have a lesson with their date set, but she wasn't there when we went to her apartment. So we did some tracting after that and didn't find anyone. Most people were older and said they had a church already. Haha that is honestly the most common excuse we get. Right after that we went to the stake center to play basketball. Elder Kershaw told me on the way down that I was going to be a ZL pretty soon. I'm not sure how excited I am about that because they have to do a lot of extra work and it takes away from doing actual missionary work. But anyway, the ZLs recommend who they think should train and be in leadership and stuff so I don't know what will happen.
Thursday morning we taught Teagan, Katelynn's sister the Plan of Salvation. It was really cool. We drew it out and then as we were drawing it, we iMessaged her on my iPad and her iPhone. She is deaf and we don't know sign language, so that's how we have to communicate haha. She liked it and said she believed everything we taught. I hope we have planted some seeds for her though. She and Katelynn are now in Florida with her parents. Right after that we went over to Sister Kellington's house to help her with yard work! She is awesome and I don't know why we haven't been over there that much haha. She and her husband are active in church, but all their kids and grandkids aren't active. Their one grandson, Mason, is less active and a prospective Elder and lives with them right now, so she wants us to help him get active again. So anyway, we dug some holes to plant these huge plants in and then we did a bunch of mulch on her pathways in their backyard. They have a super cool and big backyard. She had to go to work right after we got there so she told us, "You basically have free run of my house if you need it, and here's where all my food is, so help yourself!" We were like, "Uh... ok!" We didn't really take advantage of that as much as we could've but she did give us a bunch of grapes and watermelon that we greatly appreciated because fruit is my favorite. I'm seriously gonna eat so much healthier when I get home. We eat really healthy here or at least try to. Basically all we buy from the grocery store is fruit, yogurt, and milk haha. After dinner on Thursday we had a lesson with Lorraine and Brother Moerschel came with us again. It was a good lesson. We read the talk, "Peace Be With You" by Elder Eyring from the women's session of conference this April. She really liked it and actually texted us after and told us how much she liked it! So Thursday was pretty good!
Friday was weekly planning and we actually had a lesson in the middle of it to break up the long grind of planning haha. There's this lady named Grace who lives right across the street from us in some town homes. We found her like 2 weeks ago and had our first come back lesson with her on Friday. She didn't let us in, but we did our best to teach the Plan of Salvation on her doorstep. Her daughter was running around and it was so hot but we did our best and hoped she felt the Spirit. It went about as well as it could've and she said we could stop by again next week! After we got done weekly planning, we had a lesson with Brother Colwell. We showed "Voice of the Spirit" Mormon message and talked about listening to the Spirit when the world has so many voices and noises that try to compete with the Spirit. After that we tracted in Burnsville for about an hour and half. It was hot! It has been really humid and in the 90's this week. So we were just sweating our heads off haha, but it was fun. Nobody really talked to us, but we worked hard and had a good time! After that the Gretz had us over for dinner and then we helped them set up for Mikey's graduation party on Saturday. We moved and set up like 5 canopy things and then moved a ton of tables and chairs. Right after that Brother Humphries came out with us and we taught Johanna. She texted us and said this would be her last lesson with us because she would be really busy this summer. Our last lesson we had with her was really good but this lesson was not really that great. She was really trying to disagree with everything we said and was just really not open. We just ended up talking a bunch about the Book of Mormon and we showed "A Testimony of the Book of Mormon" by Jeffrey R Holland. She literally was like, "That was nice. It's nice that Joseph was willing to die for something he thought was true. It's basically just like dying for Jesus. Like if any Christian dies for Jesus it's just like that." I was like wow. The whole point we were trying to get across was the Book Of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith is a prophet. She didn't seem to get that. After the lesson, Brother Humphries was like, "She seemed really condescending and not open." I was like, "Yeah, unfortunately that's how it goes sometimes." After that we had a great member lesson with the Hong family. They're really cool! It was a much better note to end the evening on.
Saturday we had Bishop's breakfast and then hustled to the Gretz to help getting set up for the party. We worked fast haha. Sister Gretz was stressing pretty bad and we were doing like everything to help her out. Anyway, we got everything done on time and it was good to go. A ton of Brother Gretz family came and Sister Gretz mom was there, too. So there were a ton of non members there. While we were eating, I was looking around to see who I could go talk to. I saw this couple sitting on the other side of the yard by themselves, so I went on over and sat down and started talking to them. Their names were Junior and Jennifer. We started off with some small talk, just like who you were and where you're from. She is Brother Gretz cousin. They're from Iowa in a super small town. Like there is only a few thousand people in the whole town and the school has like 500 kids K-12. We got talking about football too, because I said I had been to a camp at UNI 2 years ago. He really opened up after that and we talked about football and then Colorado because I brought up the fact that I was playing at Colorado Mesa when I get home. Then I started throwing out some little things we do as missionaries and then they started asking us questions about missionary work and stuff like that. It was cool! I really tried to just get to know them and be friends with them. People are often leery of missionaries when they come over and immediately start talking religion. I didn't bring it up hardly at all until they started asking about it. Anyway, we had a great chat and talked for almost an hour. Time flew by during that hour haha. I later found out that they just barely had a 23 year-old daughter pass away unexpectedly from a heart attack. I thought it was interesting that of all the people I felt I should go talk to at the party it was them. God truly does know us and inspires others to comfort us. I don't know how much comforting or anything I did, but I just tried to be their friend and talk to them and be fun! It was cool! After that we finished up some yard work for Sister Kellington. We chopped up this huge plant in her front yard and replanted it in the backyard in like 3 spots. Then we watered it and got it looking all nice and stuff. She is seriously an awesome lady. We are trying to meet with her grandson, Mason, this week!
After that it was Stake Conference. Elder Scott of the 70 came and spoke and it was super good! The main thing that stuck out to me was don't let the ways of the world, no matter how appealing they seem, weaken your faith and pull you away from covenants and stuff. He said we are on God's team and God's team ALWAYS wins. I loved that. He said it won't always be easy and it will continually get harder in these last days. But we need to develop unshakable faith in God and Jesus Christ and God's plan for us. It was such a powerful talk. Daren cancelled on us last minute again, so I was pretty bummed out about that. Natalie never answers her phone, so it has been really tough communicating with her too. I was sad neither of them made it, but I hope we can use what we learned to help them!
Sunday was great! When we started the day, we literally had nothing planned. We had Stake Conference in the morning until about noon and then Sister Forbes wanted us to write in the triple combination she had gotten for President Forbes and highlight our favorite scriptures. After that we went home and planned what we wanted to do for our day. We did a ton of stop bys of people we had found tracting and we actually had a lesson with someone!! This lady named Jennifer that we found a while ago has talked to us a little bit when we stopped by like 2 weeks ago, and this week we've had pretty legit lessons with her. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon this week with her and also a little about the plan of salvation, mainly focusing on agency and families! She loves her family and is really family oriented, so I felt that it was good. After that we went and chalked the walking path around the lake and actually had someone call us about it after haha. All they said was "Your chalk art was really good! Keep it up!" Then they hung up. At least people are seeing it! We drew a big world and then Christ coming to the Americas on one side with the BOM and then the Bible and the 5 loaves and two fishes story on the other side. We wrote John 3:16 and wrote about how God loves all his children worldwide! It was pretty cool! Then we had dinner at the Davis's house. Brother Davis grilled fish and we had fish tacos and this corn mush stuff that I loved. It is super good! After that we tracted a little bit and then had a lesson with Brother Gretz mom, Doris. She is the sweetest old lady and reminds me a lot of my Grandma Barbara. She believes everything is true, but said she still smokes and isn't ready to give it up yet. Brother Gretz and she kind of got into an argument about what is truth verse what isn't truth. I had a thought to show her this talk called "This Day" by Elder Eyring. Elder Sherwood said to me about 10 minutes after Brother Gretz and his mom were arguing, "Hey, what's that talk by Elder Eyring that talks about not procrastinating?" I said, "This talk I have pulled up right now." So we showed her the talk and it was really powerful. I shared one of my favorite scriptures with her from Alma 34:31 Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you.
32 For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.
33 And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.
34 Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.
35 For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked.
I absolutely love these scriptures. We never know if the next day we will still be on earth. Nothing is a for sure thing. Repenting and living the gospel is a for sure thing, though. One of the only for sure things in the world. I shared that with her and my testimony that now is the time. Not next week, or next year or even tomorrow. It's now. Now is the time to get ready to prepare to meet God. Those verses are really powerful to me because they help me know that you never know when you will be done. I could die tomorrow and if it was my last day, did I live it in such a way that I can stand before God and say, "I gave you my all. I did my best. I'm not perfect by any means but I know through the atonement of Jesus Christ that he can make up for my shortcomings." It was a cool lesson, and I hope we helped her realize she can't keep waiting until she is ready. She is ready, she just needs to do it!
Today we went to the Mall of America with the Lake Marion Elders and Jaidyn. It was huge. Like absolutely huge haha. There is an indoor amusement park in the middle and then like every store imaginable. We all wanted to get a Moana themed tie to wear, so we went to Nordstrom Rack and found some sweet floral ties that look like Moana ties haha. We also went to the Disney store and looked at all the cool stuff there. The Lego store was insane. We also played mini golf at Moose Mountain golf course. It was pretty fun. Elder Coon and I tied for first! We also walked around the Nike outlet and all wished we had like $2,000 to spend there haha. It was a great p-day!
Much love,
Elder Beach
#MavUp #10
Posing as Forrest Gump at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
At the Mall of America.
A little editing on a street sign... :)
Wearing a Chewbacca mask at dinner. It actually made noises like him when you opened your mouth!
Got to see one of my former ZLs at Stake Conference!
Happy Graduation to Mikey!
It's always fun to find a street named for me!
Fish tacos! YUM!
