Happy Thanksgiving!

     Happy thanksgiving to all my fam, friends and coaches back home, at school, and serving around the world! Hope you all are having a great Thanksgiving with some good food, fam, friends and football.  Just wanted to give a little shoutout to my best friend Colton and his wife Brianne! They got married for time and all eternity this week and I’m so happy for them! I just watched your wedding video and I cried because it was so good and I miss you guys a lot! Love you both and I’m so happy for both of you! We had a turkey bowl with the Buffalo Elders, so it was awesome to be able to play football for about 3 hours this morning! I had a blast and got to throw a bunch of TDs and had a few good scrambles as well haha.  I played safety on defense and that was way fun! I haven’t played safety for a while, but I enjoyed mixing it up a little. Well we’ve had like a week and a half since my last email, so I’ll just throw in the highlights from the last week or so!

     Last Tuesday we did a mini exchange with the AP’s/ZL’s so I went with Elder Cardwell who is an AP, and Elder Layton went with Elder Meyer who’s a ZL. Elder Cardwell and I taught a former Spanish investigator and I didn’t know what was going on so I just sat there haha.  The dude spoke some English so I got to know him and stuff, but he isn’t very fluent so I couldn’t teach much. After that we went to Buffalo Lake to meet the other Elders and switch back. Elder Layton and I tracted and met this man named Gary who was really nice and let us in! We taught him about the Book of Mormon and gave him a copy and set up a return appointment for the following Tuesday! More on him later. After that we had a lesson with the Fischers. They are in their 90’s and live in Buffalo Lake. They’re super nice and Brother Fischer is so funny. Sister Fischer talks a lot and at one point I looked over at him and he was just shaking his head and silently saying, “Honey, just please shut up!” I had to suppress a laugh, but I managed to get away with a grin haha. It was pretty funny! After that we headed to Gibbon to have dinner with the other Munoz family. Jorge Munoz has a son named Jorge as well and he was visiting with his wife and kid from California and is probably moving out here in December. He isn’t a member, but was super interested in the Book of Mormon and restoration so that was sweet! Dinner was awesome. They made chicken, rice, beans, guacamole, pico, and chips and salad. It was so good.  Jorge Jr.’s wife is a less active member, so she helped out with the lesson a lot. It was solid!

     Wednesday we went to Glencoe and it wasn’t quite as bad as last time in Glencoe haha.  We knocked some doors south of town in this richer neighborhood, but we found a few people we are planning on going back to, so that was awesome. We had a lesson with the Ackersons who are less active. Their daughter was back from college so that was good to meet her, too. She goes to school in Wilmer and we hadn’t ever met, so that was good she was there too. I honestly have no idea why they’re less active. Sister Ackerson said she doesn’t like to leave the trailer ever, and she doesn’t like people, so I guess that’s why.  I couldn’t tell ya haha. After that we visited Sister Black and her son, Brady. He is such a good kid. He’s getting ready to get the Aaronic Priesthood. He’s 14 and just hasn’t been super active because of his family situation, but he’s a great kid. He loved the Carolina Panthers and I bought a Panthers beanie at the Mall of America and I just thought it was cool. I decided to give it to him because he loves the Panthers and they aren’t super well off with money, so I figured he would love it! I’m also gonna give him a couple of ties because I have a ton haha.

     Thursday we weekly planned because Friday we were blitzing Buffalo. So we got that all done and then stopped by a few people before dinner. We had dinner with Jorge “Koki” Munoz, who lives in Hutchinson. They made us some chili and it was way good! Jorge is Jorge senior's son as well. So there are 3 Jorge Munoz haha.  Anyway, he just got the Melchizedek Priesthood and so we shared this Mormon message called “Power of God” By President Monson. He really liked it! His wife is from Texas and they have 2 little kids. They’re a super nice family and we had a great time with them! They invited us over to watch this movie called “Young Messiah” about Christ when he is a younger boy. They said it was awesome and I’m not sure when we are going to watch it, but I’m excited to see it! After dinner we got our stuff packed up to go up to Buffalo and then headed up there. We stopped by a few people in Dassel and Cokato and nobody was home, so that was a bummer.  Sometimes you just have days where no one is home haha. 

     Friday was an awesome day! I got to go with Elder Woolley, and I am so excited to work with him this upcoming transfer. I’m pretty sure we are going to be in a trio, and I’m way excited for that! Elder Woolley is a hard worker and we get along really well, so I’m hyped to be with him and Elder Layton.  We did a bunch of stop bys in the morning and and then we knocked some doors in the afternoon/evening and we just had a grand old time haha. We found like 3 people who are pretty solid so that was way cool!  We found this dude who is gay, but was super cool and talked to us for a while. He was really open to the Book of Mormon and our stance on gays. He’s been talking to Elder Woolley on Facebook a lot, and seems pretty interested and has been reading the Book of Mormon already, so that’s awesome.  We had dinner with all 4 of us on Friday night with the Polls family. They are way cool and Sister Polls thought Elder Layton was a hoot.  Dinner was a riot with all 4 of us there haha.  We did a few more stop bys after dinner and didn’t have a lot of luck with those. We did meet a less active guy who served in the Czech Republic who might have served with Elder Layton’s Dad, so that was cool. 

     Saturday we worked on our Christmas song video we were supposed to make for Sister Barney. She wants us to sing a Christmas song as companionships or districts, so we are singing “Born on Christmas Day” by Brad Paisley. We didn’t get much of it done and Elder Harper is pretty checked and doesn’t do much so it’s kind of hard to get out of the apartment with him. I went with him on Saturday so we didn’t get much done. We just went to the church and he saved all his photos and stuff to his flash drive and finished his letter to President Barney for going home. After that we went up to St. Cloud for zone service at this Catholic cathedral thing. A bunch of choirs did a big charity concert thing and sang a bunch of songs, so we were the greeters at the door and helped haul all the food donated into a truck. It was fun to see all the zone and hang out with everyone. We had a good time! They had this bell choir thing and this one lady in the bell choir was going so hard.  I’ll try to attach a video of it! Also, Elder Loveland, who is in Princeton, apparently got lost or something for like half the performance and then everyone gets this text from the Princeton phone that says, “I’m in the main entrance if any of you are wondering.” - Elder Loveland.  Everyone almost died laughing because we had no clue where he was! It was pretty funny! On the drive home Elder Woolley and I were teaching Elder Layton how to pull the moves on a girl because he doesn’t know how. So Elder Woolley was showing him how to do the reach around arm move thing and Elder Layton goes, “Why don’t you just go straight for the make-out?” The dude who was driving us was an RM from the Elk River Ward that just got home and he almost died.  I thought we were going to drive off the road because he was dying.  We had to explain to Elder Layton that that’s not how you do it! It was pretty funny! 

     Sunday was great! I seriously love Sundays so much on the mission. They are awesome. So busy and we always have such cool miracles. We ended up having 3 people at church again so that was way cool! Victor, his friend Jim, and Sister Reisewitz came, too! So that was way cool! Elders Quorum was a riot again haha. Jorge Munoz is blessing his kids next week, so we learned how to do baby blessings. I had brought my Panthers beanie and some ties for Brady Black (they didn’t make it to church unfortunately) so they used that as the baby to practice giving the blessings. It was super weird haha.  But Jorge learned how to do it and feels pretty good about it, so that was cool! Sunday after church we went up to Dassel and Cokato again and knocked some doors in Cokato. We met these guys out working on a truck that we ended up talking to for like 20 minutes about missionary work and the Book of Mormon. They were really stand offish at first, but as we got talking they just opened right up once they realized we were just normal human beings.  We gave them a Book of Mormon and they said they might have us come help do some concrete work with them because Elder Layton knows how to do concrete stuff! So that’ll be sweet! Haha there was a dude outside raking leaves and we rolled up and asked him if he needed help. Before we got the words out he goes, “Not interested!” I said, “We’re missionaries from the LDS church. We are sharing about Christ with people!” He’s like, “I’m not interested. I’ve found Jesus.” I asked him if he knew of anyone in the area that needed extra service or a message about Christ. He says “Everyone!” So I said “Everyone but you?” That seemed to catch him off guard a little and he was like, “Uhhh uhh...” and then just went inside. Elder Layton was dying and was like, “Oh! You thug lifed that boy!” Haha it was pretty funny. People are interesting for sure. After that we stopped by some more less actives in Cokato and a few of them were home and said we could come back in a week or two, so that was good we made contact with them! We stopped by Dylan, Nicole, and Caitlyn but they weren’t home, so we headed home to have dinner before the Young Adult worldwide devotional. Elder Oaks and Ballard are hilarious and Elder Oaks roasted some people and so did Elder Ballard.  It was really good, but got me stressed out to date and get married. That kind of stuff isn't really my favorite or my strong suit, so I’ll have to get on it when I get back. 

     I will write about this week in my next week's email so I have some stuff to write about! Well, with today being Thanksgiving, I figured I better share some things I’m grateful for!

1. My savior Jesus Christ. Without Him I would be nothing. I’m grateful that through Christ we are able to be cleansed from sin and become the people we are meant to become. He is my rock and salvation and without Him we can’t amount to much in this life. I’m grateful for His life and sacrifice for us. It is truly wonderful!
2. I’m grateful for my awesome family! I seriously have the greatest family. They have sacrificed so much for me so that I could play football and serve a mission and do things I enjoy. I hope you know how much I love you and how much I appreciate all you do for me and all the support you give me, no matter what I’m doing. 
3. The Book of Mormon. Without this book I would not be on a mission. My testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith has grown exponentially on my mission and it has been the motivation for me to share the gospel. By reading the Book of Mormon it has literally transformed me and I want to share that with others. It contains the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the message of happiness, hope and joy it shares is beyond anything on earth!
4. I’m grateful for insulin and modern medicine. Without the modern medicine we have I would currently be dead. I’m so lucky to live in a time where diabetes is manageable and I can control it through insulin injections, diet, and exercise. 
5. I’m grateful for my great friends. I seriously have the best friends ever. I’m so blessed to be associated with all of you and I’ve learned a lot from each of you. You’ve always motivated me to be the best and work hard in sports, school and life. Thanks for being such great examples of hard work and brotherhood to me!

Well, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and got to play/watch some good football games and eat some good food with fam and friends. I love you all and hope and pray your week is awesome and you don’t get murked during “Black Friday” shopping.  Thanks for all the prayers and support! 

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

A little football on Thanksgiving Day!

Elder Meyer and me with the Cs.

Our zone ushering the choir concert.

It's starting to get cold!

We thought this was kind of funny!