Elder Beach Minnesota Minneapolis Mission: Snowed in...in April!

What’s up to everyone back home, at school, and serving around the world in the warm weather of wherever you’re at. This week was pretty crazy and we had a blizzard Saturday and Sunday and it snowed over a foot and we had whiteout conditions, so we basically had a 3 day p-day because all we did was hang out in the apartment and shovel snow haha. It was pretty crazy! We had a fun week, wasn’t the most productive as far as missionary work goes because we had a lot of stuff going on plus the blizzard.️ But it was fun nonetheless!

So Monday we didn’t have p-day because we went to the Twins game on Wednesday this week! So we did a bunch of stuff to get ready for Zone Conference on Thursday. We had to get our training prepared, make travel plans, and go down to Bloomington to get van certified so we could drive the "vanimal" to Zone Conference. We had to watch a 2 hour training video and do this booklet thing and take a test. We got about an hour into it and we were like, “This is so dumb. Let’s just take the test.” So we took it and I missed one question that was a really stupid question and Elder Peterson got 100%, so we both got van certified. The video was like what you watch in drivers ed basically. Like if you have no common sense or any idea how to drive you would watch that video. After that the Bearss took us, the North Elders, and the Spanish Elders to Burger Jones. It’s this super good burger place in Minneapolis. I just got a salad because the burgers are so bad for you haha. The favorite there is the “White Trash Burger” see pics below. After that we had to do all the zone conference stuff and I basically wanted to kill myself by like 6 pm. We spend like 4 hours trying to figure how we were getting everyone there because it was in Oakdale (no clue why). So we had to get 24 missionaries in the van and 1 car plus the APs car and President took like 5 people, too. So we somehow got it all worked out without absolutely thrashing miles in our zone.

Tuesday was pretty sweet! We went to FMSC (Feed My Starving Children) in the morning/early afternoon and then did some stop bys in Hopkins on the way back. I had a chiropractor appointment at like 4:00, so we went to that and then picked up the other Elders for dinner. The Bundys got us a take and bake pizza. It was bbq chicken and was super good. So we just cooked it and ate it at the church. In the evening we knocked some doors for a little bit and then Brother Holder took us to the McIntoshes for a lesson. Brother McIntosh is a member and his wife is Lutheran. They’re both way cool and come to church about every other week and then go to her church the other weeks. We’ve talked to them at church a few times and have stopped by them to visit, but haven’t been able to set anything up. Brother Holder is good friends with Brother McIntosh because they are both photographers. So he got a lesson set up with them! We just got to know them and we really hit it off with them! We shared the restoration lesson and invited them to read the Book of Mormon to know if it is true and if the message we share is true. He asked us some questions about the sacred grove and said he’d been there a few times and really felt the spirit there. I’ve really enjoyed teaching the restoration on my mission. Each time we teach and bear testimony of it, the spirit is so strong. The spirit was killing it in the lesson we had with them, and I know she felt it, so I hope she acts on the feelings she had. I know he said he reads the Book of Mormon most days, so we are hoping to get them to read it together.

Wednesday was the Twins game! It was dope. We rode the train from our apartment to the stadium and had a blast at the game. President Barney was getting so hyped haha. It was awesome. There was a group of elementary school kids sitting in front of us so Elder Cross taught them a bunch of cheers to do so we would all be doing these super funny baseball cheers haha. The Twins hit a walk off home run in the bottom of the 8th inning to win it 9-8, so it was a great game. Definitely worth the $18 MSF to go haha. After the game we had dinner really quick with Brother Showley and then had to drive down to Bloomington to get the vanimal for the Zone Conference the next day.

Thursday was Zone Conference and it was pretty good! We got to take the vanimal with like 10 other people in it to Oakdale, which is like 40 minutes from our place. Zone Conference was pretty good and Elder Peterson and I gave a training on doing devise checks on your companion. We got some pretty awkward questions about what to do if you find bad stuff on your companion's iPad. Elder Peterson just made it super funny and everyone was dying. Even President had a good laugh haha. I don't know why people ask such awkward questions, but they do, so you just gotta roll with the punches. The conference ended up going over by like an hour and 15 minutes, so by the time we dropped everyone off and then took the van back, it was time to meet up with Brother Shaffer for dinner. He offered to buy us groceries this week, so I jumped all over that offer because for some reason fruits and veggies are like 3x as expensive as they were in the middle of the winter. I don’t quite understand that, but it costs me a lot of money to eat healthy haha. I’m kind of stressing out about feeding myself when I get home because you can buy cheap, unhealthy stuff and get way more for less, but if you buy a ton of healthy stuff it’s so expensive. I don’t get it. And people wonder why America has an obesity problem. We took this kid named Dominic with us. He’s a less active kid in our ward. He’s like 15 and has had a rough life. He grew up in 7 Mile, Detroit and did drugs and stuff when he was like 10. Then his mom moved to Arizona and they joined the church there. Somehow he ended up back here and is in our ward now. He’s a funny dude and Brother Shaffer helps him out a lot. So he came out with us. After we had dinner and shopped we were supposed to have a lesson with Eric, but he left a note on the door that said they had to go out and we could meet next week. We knocked like 3 doors by our apartment before we headed in and called it a night.

Friday we did service at the VA and made Modge Podge candle jars. They were pretty sweet and we got to talk to all the homies there about ‘Nam and killing people haha. They’re so funny! We also had a country music sing along, but it was all old school sappy country songs so I didn’t know any of them haha. After that we did weekly planning at the church and then had to bike home in this gnarly hail storm. It was pretty sucky and then it started snowing and getting super windy right before we got home. So Friday was good! I tuned up my bike by myself and it’s doing pretty good, so I don’t think I’ll need to pay for a tune up, especially since bike shops charge like $75+ for basic tune ups. It’s a joke haha.

Saturday we were supposed to exchange with the APs, but that ended up not happening because we didn’t have a car and it was a blizzard and white out conditions. We had a lesson with the Iversons at 1 pm, so we cleaned our apartment until about noon (Sister Barney advised the mission to do this) and then took off on foot to get to our lesson. It was about a 2 mile walk on the way there. There were a lot of people out shoveling we stopped to help but no one wanted help and it was really hard to talk to people because the wind was blowing like 40 mph. So we go to the Iversons, and we were basically just a pile of snow walking into their house. We talked about the enabling power of the atonement with them and how it not only “helps bad people become good, but good people become better!” It was a super good lesson and they really liked it! After that we trudged to the church and it was snowing so hard. We got there and basically stripped down to our shirts and slacks so everything could sort of dry off. The other Elders came and picked us up and we got some dinner and hung out at their place the rest of the night with them and the Spanish Elders. President said the cars couldn’t go out and it basically looked like hell frozen over outside and was snowing like crazy.

Church got cancelled Sunday morning, so we just chilled and shot some pool and watched general conference again. After it quit snowing super hard we headed out to shovel people out. We had a lesson with the Transfeldts at 3:30 pm and they made us some cinnamon cake and Milo which is like South African hot chocolate, but it’s way healthier haha. After that we had dinner with the North Elders, Spanish Elders, and Richfield Sisters at Hermana Morales’s house! It was pretty good. I’m not sure what we had, but it tasted good. We played Pie Face for Elder Peterson’s birthday haha. That was pretty funny. After that we dropped off the other Elders at their place and went and shoveled Lisa Jones' sidewalk and front walk way. She came out and was tickled pink that we did that for her. She said her husband had been meaning to do it but just hadn’t yet because he was super tired from work. They had been planning on attending church, but it got canceled so that kinda sucked, but it is what it is! She said they were looking forward to meeting with us again on Thursday and we got to meet her husband, David, and he’s super nice! So I’m excited for Thursday this week!

Well, it’s been another good week here in the MMM. I read a talk recently by Elder Bednar called, “In the Strength of the Lord.” It was a super good talk about the enabling power of the atonement of Jesus Christ. I posted it on my Facebook, so check it out if you want to read it! One thing it talked a lot about was not praying for God to change our circumstances, but praying for the strength to work through them and preserve them. I really loved that! Christ’s atonement is not to change a trial and make it easier for us, but to strengthen us and make us more able to endure our trial. It is such an underutilized aspect of the atonement that I learned about. I’m so hyped to learn about that and to continue to use the enabling power to help myself and others grow in “the strength of the Lord.” Love you all and have a great week!

Much love,

Elder Beach

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