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...
