A big hello to all my family, friends, and coaches back home, at college, and serving around the world. I hope this email finds you happy and well! This week has been a busy week as usual, and I’ve learned a lot and we’ve seen some cool miracles.
Monday we had zone p-day at an America Ninja Warrior training facility in Buffalo that a member owns, so they let our whole zone come mess around and have a good time there for the day. I got to back squat heavyish for the first time in forever. I am not nearly at the strength I was at before my mission, but I’m happy to report I wasn’t nearly as sore as I thought I would be the day after. So that was good. I also learned pegboards are fun and so are rope climbs, and I can do both of those pretty well. I’m not good at salmon ladders or warped walls though. It was really a fun day and I’m glad the zone could spend it together! After that we drove with the Elk River Sisters down to the Anoka Zone to blitz with the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders down there for the night because we had Mission Leader Council the next day in Bloomington. We hung out with the Medicine Lake Elders so that was pretty fun. Elder Booth and Hickman are so funny, and we had a party.
Tuesday was MLC and it was actually really good this month! I learned a lot and have a lot of things I learned that I need to work on as a ZL. I was very happy with the trainings and what we discussed. We talked about doing exchanges and the things that absolutely need to happen. Elder Meyer and I realized we didn’t do a lot of them haha, so fortunately for us we had an exchange with the Buffalo Elders planned for the next day, so that was good so we could work on stuff with them. Ok so after MLC we had a little funny story I would love to tell you all about. We drove Buffalo’s car down to MLC because apparently they were supposed to get a new Tiwi (this box in your car that yells at you when you drive too fast or peel out and whatnot). So we get to MLC and the APs are like, “Oh, actually the Tiwi Guy isn’t coming today.” So then things get interesting with rides back up to everywhere. So the St. Cloud Sisters got a flat tire Sunday night driving to Elk River (don’t know why they were going to Elk River in the first place). So they called us like 3 times Sunday night, but we had lessons and training evaluations so we didn’t call them back until like 10 pm. They’re like, “Hey Elders! We are in Becker with a flat tire. Could you call some members and see if they could help us?” So come to find out, they had been sitting there for over an hour and the only people they had called was us, the vehicle coordinator in Bloomington, and the Elk River Sisters. So anyway, a cop shows up finally and helps them change the tire and they get on their way. So the next morning they realize they had another flat tire, and so they take it in to get looked at and they have a bent rim or something so they have to put the car in the shop until like Friday. So they’re in Elk River with no car. So back to after MLC. So we drive the Elk River Sisters back to Elk River and pick up the St. Cloud Sisters to drive them back up to St. Cloud with us. But, we had to switch our car back with Buffalo before then, so that was a whole fiasco and Elder Meyer pretty much had a mental breakdown while sitting at a train crossing waiting for it, and he just was going insane and I was too kinda, and we were just like laughing and crying and being goobers and it was pretty funny, but ya had to be there obviously. It was pretty funny and the hardest I’ve laughed in a good while haha. So we finally got our car switched with Buffalo and got home at like 7 pm. We were supposed to have a 7 pm dinner, but it fell through so we just went home and ate some food really quick and then met Brother Casper at the church to go have a lesson with LJ. The lesson went really well and he loved Brother Casper. They got to meet at the Priesthood session of conference, so we invited Brother Casper to joint teach with us! We taught LJ the 10 commandments with hand signs, and he thought it was pretty neat.He’s doing pretty good but definitely gotta take it slow with him and review A LOT!
Wednesday we had our exchange with Buffalo and it was pretty good! I went with Elder Harper up in Sauk Rapids and Elder Meyer went with Elder Seng in Buffalo. We did some Facebook work and then knocked doors for about an hour for zone finding hour. We didn’t really find anyone solid, but had some really solid discussions with a few people on their porches so that was good. After we had a lesson set up with Tara and her kids (lady that Elder Meyer and I found last week that had the inquisitive son), so we got there and her husband basically shut it down. He came out to talk to us and was like, “Yeah I’ve talked to Mormons before. I really appreciate what you guys are doing, so keep up the good work!” I was like, “So we talked to your wife and kids last week and they said we could come by today and share some more with them. Is that cool with you if we do?” He proceeds to basically say the exact same thing so I was like, “Is now a bad time? Could we come by later?” He again proceeds to basically tell us he appreciates our work and to keep up the good work. So I was a little upset he couldn’t seem to give us a straight answer, so I was just like, “Alright my man! Thanks for your support and we will come by another time.” So we left and plan on stopping by again when the husband isn’t home haha. After that the Sanchez family had signed up to feed us dinner, but Brother Sanchez was out of town for work, so they told us to stop by and pick up some money for dinner. So we get there and knock on the door and Sister Sanchez comes out to talk to us and give us the money for dinner. Then her twin boys come out and shut the door behind them. So apparently their door was locked and so they were completely locked out of the house. Every single door was locked and Sister Sanchez didn’t have her keys or phone or anything. So we tried every single door to no avail and finally Elder Harper was able to credit card lock pick the back garage door and get them into the garage. The garage door to the house was dead bolted shut so we got them into the garage but not the house. They finally got some neighbors to help them out and call someone who had a key. Pretty funny though, haha. We had some Subway for dinner and it was good as always. After dinner, Brother Roback took us up to Little Falls for a lesson with Billy Kassel and the Dobsons. Billy’s lesson was a little weird again, and he just kind of argued his opinion of what the sacrament is and why we take it each week. He did say he knows he needs to take it though, and it’s been a while, so he should probably get on it! After that we taught the Dobsons about how the sacrament helps us each week as we partake of it. They asked if they could just do sacrament for themselves at home because they were “too busy to come to church.” We said we would ask the Bishop but we already knew the answer was no. They seem to let so many little things get in the way of church. Both of them are working part time and say they are so swamped with work they can’t make it. I wanted to say, “So you’re telling me because you work 20 hours a week and are helping someone remodel their house on the side you're too busy to come to church?” It’s seriously just not a priority for them. Elder Meyer said it best: “You’re never too busy to do things that are important to you.” I find that very true. I see people who work 50-60 hours a week and have 5 kids that make it to church every week without fail because they make it a priority in their lives. And they are way happier because God blesses us when we make it a priority to do the things he has asked us to do. It makes me sad they can’t seem to figure that out, but I hope and pray they will soon!
Thursday morning we drove down to Clearwater to switch back companionships and then Elder Meyer and I drove back up to Sauk Rapids. We were supposed to meet Joel at 2 pm on campus and we got there and he said he waited around for us and then had to leave for class. It was like 2:01 when we got there. I was a little sad about that but I learned to be exactly on time. As we were walking out of the Atwood building there was this guy sitting on a bench with a pit bull, so we decided to talk to him about his dog and we ended up finding out he knows Bryce Sorensen that we met with last Saturday that’s a less active member of the church. So good connection there and he was pretty interested in what we do as missionaries and even said he wanted to be one. So he followed us on Facebook and we told him we would message him about a time to meet! After that we knocked doors for like 2 hours and gave away some Books of Mormon to people so that was good! Haha cool sorry while knocking doors. We met this kid riding his bike in the street and he asked us who we were and what we were doing? After we told him, he told us to go knock on his door and talk to his mom. So naturally we did. We knocked on his door and his mom came out and we ended up talking to her for like 15 minutes. She has family who are members of the church and so we ended up teaching her and her son (who is like 7) a basic restoration lesson on their porch and gave them a Book of Mormon and invited them to read it pray about it. She took the book and said they would read it! (They’re Catholic so I don't know if that will happen, but hopefully it does!) haha After we left we got a picture with all the neighborhood kids because they thought we were really cool or weird or something, but they wanted to take a picture with us with their “pet eagle”. So naturally we obliged and took a picture with their pet eagle. It was fun to be a kid again for like 2 minutes. Growing up is awesome, but it ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Like I love it, but sometimes I miss being a kid, where your only worry was what to eat for lunch and what games to play with your buddies. My advice to all people under the age of 18 is to enjoy life and have as much fun as you can with family and friends. Don’t sit around wasting your time with video games and saying, “I wish I was older so I could do X, Y, or Z....” Just love life and enjoy every second! Ok enough of my preaching haha. So after that we drove out to Foley to have dinner with the Cosgroves. It was really good and we read part of Elder Holland’s talk with them called “Be Ye Therefore Perfect - Eventually.” Brother Cosgrove loved it and said he really needed to hear the message in that talk. I’m so grateful we have modern prophets and apostles to teach us what God needs us to hear. I’m also grateful to the help of the Holy Ghost in our missionary efforts that inspires us to share the words of our prophets and apostles with those we are teaching! It’s awesome! After that we stopped by Rosalie in the actual town of Foley and she wasn’t home unfortunately, so we did a few more stop bys and no luck with those either. Our area book and area book map apps got a new update and combined into one app, so we decided to go figure out how to use it before weekly planning the next day. It’s nice to have everything in one app, but the calendar part of it I really don’t like. It’s hard to tell what you’re doing when with the new app. Also, the members are different so there’s only members and then you have to add them to a “focus group” if they are less active or you are working with them. It’s a little more confusing and complicated but we are getting the hang of it.
Friday we raked leaves for Connie and mowed part of her lawn because we ran out of gas and she didn’t have any more. She told us she couldn’t come to church this Sunday because the pastor at her church was retiring, so for Sunday services they were just having a big dinner and memorial/tribute party for him at church. I found it odd that that’s what the service was, but it is what it is. After that we weekly planned and did accounting until 5 pm. It was a little trickier to do weekly planning with the new area book app, but I feel like it forced us to actually plan better so that’s good! After we had dinner we knocked doors for about an hour and a half and found some solid potentials so that was great. We are going to stop by them again this week! We stopped by a couple less active people in Sartell we had never met, and one of them told us to set something up with his wife. We have actually met him like 2 other times and he says the same thing every time. I wish people would just tell us they’re not interested if they’re not interested. It saves us a lot of time. Anyway, we did meet this one less active guy whom I guess “left” the church in high school but he’s still on the records so we stopped by and he was pretty nice but doesn’t want us stopping by more than once a month and never to share a message with him. He did give us a referral for this elderly couple down the street we might be able to do yard work for so that was cool! After that we had a lesson with LJ and it wasn’t the best lesson we’ve had haha. He was so out of control. He couldn’t stay focused at all and it was just way scattered. It was like teaching Primary! So Friday ended on kind of a bummer, but it’s all good.
Saturday morning we went to see Bill again. He told us he wouldn’t read the Book of Mormon and is basically just going to wait around to die. He said he prays every day for God to take him home. I feel like that’s kind of a sad way to live your life. I’m guessing the reason we found him was so in the Spirit World he will remember us and the Book of Mormon and all that and be more receptive there. So we probably won’t be seeing Bill much more unfortunately, but he just isn’t willing to do anything right now. We helped the Sisters' investigator move into a house in St. Cloud and that was fun! It was funny because people from like 4 other churches were there campaigning to get them to their church. I just had to smile and shake my head. I’m a “by their fruits ye shall know them” kinda guy, so I’m hoping that they recognized the LDS missionaries hard at work and being friendly and helpful wherever we could! We did a ton of stop bys and tracting on Saturday afternoon. It was quite warm and I was actually sweating for the first time in a while haha. One of the first doors we knocked on this lady answered and came out to talk with us and she said she had known several Mormons from work and had been introduced to the Book of Mormon by them. She said their family used to be Catholic but left because it was too strict and then they go to a non-denominational church now. She said if she gets a sign from God to push her in the direction of the church then she will check it out. I wanted to say, “God inspired us to come knock your street today. Is that a good enough sign for ya?” But I didn’t because I don’t know how to say that nicely haha. It’s all good though! One day she’ll figure it out. After that we did a Facebook messenger with Ashlee. Her mom was in the hospital so she couldn’t meet with us. Her mom had a stroke, so we talked to Ashlee and shared some of W. Christopher Waddell’s talk from conference about turning to the Lord in our trials. She liked it, and I’m hoping she can start to apply the gospel and see the fruits of peace and hope it brings. It was a good “lesson” haha - our first one over Facebook messenger just doing DMs. After that we had dinner with Sister Kennedy and she made some really good lemon pepper chicken. After that we had a lesson with Flora and Brother Charter at the church. Flora got to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead for her first time on Saturday, so we talked about how that went and then reviewed highlights and any questions she had from conference. It was a super good lesson and she’s doing so well. It makes me so happy to see her embracing the gospel and seeing the happiness it brings her. After that we did our coordination meeting with Brother Charter and called it a night.
Sunday was awesome! I’ve really come to appreciate how amazing Sundays are as a missionary. We had our coordination meeting with the Bishop and then Ward Council before church. We had Brother Charter take us to pick up Larry, this former investigator we’ve been working with. He decided to come to church this week but lives in a group home as well, so we had to pick him up. I found out talking to him on the ride to church that he has the exact same birthday as me! We both turn 20 on the 23rd of this month. So that was pretty cool! Anyway, we had 5 people at church on Sunday. Larry, LJ was finally able to come, Dan Smith, Shyanna Zurn and her husband came, and this lady named Jessica, who is from West Africa. She met Sister Otis before and then decided to come check out church! Jessica and Larry stayed all 3 hours and it was way cool. We gave Jessica a Book of Mormon and tried to set up a teaching visit with her, but she was a little hesitant to set something up. So hopefully she comes to church again and it all works out. Larry loved church so that was great! After church we were supposed to have a lesson with Stephanie and Jean but they weren’t home. I was pretty sad. So we stopped by Adam instead and got to talk to him and play some catch with his kids. His kids love us haha. He said he would talk to his wife and get back to us about a time we could come by and share a message with them. So that was good. After that we had dinner with the Rodebushes and it was so good! Sister Rodebush made chicken enchiladas, cowboy caviar with chips, mixed fruit, and cilantro lime rice. I had literally 4 extra plates of the mixed fruit haha. It was so good and she made an insanely huge bowl of it. Nobody was eating it, so I was like, “I love it so I’ll eat it haha”. It was very yummy. After dinner we drove up to St. Stephen to meet with Rick and Shauna and their family. Alyssa (the girl we originally met and gave a Book of Mormon to) was out front with Taton and this other girl we didn’t know when we pulled up. Taton had a football out, so naturally I played catch with him haha. He plays RB and is in 6th grade, so I got talking to him about football and stuff. Rick came driving up after like 10 minutes so we ended up sharing the Plan of Salvation with all of them right on the driveway! It was really cool and the other girl there was Alyssa's friend who lived next door, and she was pretty interested too, and said next time we are up in St. Stephen we could visit her family too. Hopefully that works out as well as Alyssa’s family has. Rick said his wife keeps reminding him they need to read the Book of Mormon as a family, but he’s been super busy with work (he works construction) and they haven’t had a free minute yet this week. He said by next time we come up they will have read some of it! So we set up an appointment with them for the 22nd and headed back down to Sauk Rapids. We had a lesson with the Birds and it went really well. We read 3 Nephi 11:1-15 and told them as we read to mental imagery yourself into Bountiful when Christ descends to the people. As we read it was really cool to feel the Spirit and I just had a witness that Christ truly did visit his “other sheep” in the American continent. We invited them to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true and if Christ really did visit the people in the Americas. They said they would and Emkly said she had been reading some of the Book of Mormon when she gets free time. I’m loving it!! After that we and did numbers and training evaluations and called it a night. Funny story: Elder Layton in Hutchinson lost a tooth on Sunday.
This week's been great and I’m loving Sauk Rapids and the work here. It’s still tough and we still gotta work hard, but it’s definitely paying off. It’s very satisfying at the end of a long, tough day to look in the mirror and know we gave it our best, even if it seemed like nothing worked out. That’s a pretty satisfying feeling, let me tell you. I’m so grateful to be a part of this church and this work of sharing the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m grateful we have the Priesthood and the Book of Mormon and a prophet and apostles to lead and guide us. I know this is His church and His work and it will never cease to roll forth. Love you all, and thanks for for the prayers and support. I seriously couldn’t do it without them. Congrats to the Bobcats and Mavericks! Keep on winning and kicking butt. Can’t wait to suit up again next fall. But for now, I’m in the best suit I could be in.
Much love,
Elder Beach
#MavUp #10
Hanging out with the kids in the neighborhood and their "pet eagle".
A minion fire hydrant we found.
Fall in Minnesota!
Gotta look the part for zone training over skype...
