Elder Beach Minnesota Minneapolis Mission: One more week!

What’s up to all my fam, friends, and coaches back home, at school, and serving around the world! Hope you’re having a great week! Happy Father’s Day to all the dads in my life, and most importantly, my own Dad! Love you and hope you had a great day. Can’t wait to see you and Mom next week! This week's been pretty good and was basically my last full week of proselyting on my mission because we have a lot of departing missionary interviews, packing, etc. this week. I’m going to do my best to keep it all to a minimum so I can spend as much time as possible this week doing the work. I will continue the trend of sharing lessons learned and some funny and cool stories!

I think I will start off with a funny story this week! So we went to see Robbie “Bee Sting” Virkus this Sunday because it was Father’s Day and he’s a pretty lonely guy. So we get there and he’s got his music going full blast, so we had a little dance party with him. He likes to dance. Robbie isn’t all the way there mentally, so towards the end of the lesson he just goes, “I’m the Holy Spirit!” Then he gets out of his chair and goes and stands facing the window with his back to us. He says, “Guess who’s coming tonight?” Peterson says, “Santa Claus?” Robbie goes, “No! Jesus is coming tonight! Look at those storm clouds brewing in the east. He’s coming tonight!” We were like. “Ok, we gotta go!” He’s like, “Let’s say a prayer first. I’ll say it!” So he goes and lays on his bed and starts his prayer. I don’t want to make fun of his prayer or anything, but it was the most hilarious prayer I’ve ever heard. He started out with, “Blessed be the meat!” And ended with some rhyme about different colors of people being all right in God's sight. It was very heartfelt but just really interesting haha. He is a funny guy! After he got done praying he says, “Man, that dancing really tuckered me out!” So that was a pretty funny visit with Robbie Virkus.

Sunday was a really cool day for me. The proselyting was a little rough and it was like 95 degrees and super muggy. Jackson, I somewhat can sympathize with you. You’re a man for being in that every day. We are on bikes every day though haha. It’s so hot! So Elder Peterson and I spoke in church on “Our relationship with Heavenly Father.” I felt prompted to fast on Sunday because I was giving a talk and also doing three baptism interviews for a family in the Eden Prairie ward after church. I had an awesome experience fasting. It really strengthened my testimony of it. I can see why when there are big decisions to be made or inspiration to be had, the apostles gather in a spirit of “fasting and prayer.” I fasted to have the spirit with me and magnify the words I said in my talk and also to help Maisha, Amyla, and Sir'Kendrick have good interview experiences. My talk went great! I was happy with how it turned out. Elder Stacey of the 70 who’s in our ward was there as well, so it was a little intimidating to speak in front of a General Authority. After Sacrament Meeting, Brother and Sister Schreiner grabbed me and said that my talk had been an answer to some prayers in their family. I was really surprised by that because I wasn’t expecting that to happen. I’m grateful as I prepared that I had the spirit to help me know what to say and include in my talk. After the meeting was over, Elder Stacey grabbed me and Elder Peterson and took us in a classroom and had a little interview thing with us. He gave us some advice and gave us an apostolic blessing. It was a great spiritual experience, and I know that he was truly called of God! After church the baptismal interviews with Maisha and her family were awesome! They are all super prepared and ready for baptism. Her daughter is so excited to get baptized. It just made my day to see how excited she was when we finished the interview and I told her she was good to go! It just made my whole day to see how happy they were. It was pretty sweet!

One thing I’ve become so much better at on my mission is not getting angry with stupid people haha. This time last year I would get fired up about people telling us we were wrong or going to hell or whatever. This week we met a few of those people and it was cool to be able to just keep a level head and not get all riled up by those people. We met this one lady on Saturday and it was like 100 degrees and super hot. She opens the door and just lays into us about how she believes in Nordic mythology and how Christianity is corrupt and we are completely misled. She went on for a solid 15 minutes so we just got to stand there listen to her rave at us. I amazingly was able to keep my cool and not get super fired up. We just tried to share our testimonies, and unfortunately she didn’t want to hear them, so I was just like, “All right, have a nice day!” Then she seemed mad that we didn’t want to hear her anymore. Oh well! I have learned that people are much more likely to listen and be able to hear the spirit when you just share your testimony and invite them to act instead of arguing or Bible bashing. The spirit is the real teacher in the work and is much more powerful than any sort of debate or proving people wrong!

Another thing I keep learning on the mission is how far the world is moving from the standards of the church and how confused people are. We talked to a guy this week who was an “earthist”. So he basically believes that he came from the dust, and when his life is over, he will return to the dust, and that’s the end of it for him. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation and how we are all spirit children of God and we will one day return and live with God again. He was just like, “Eh, that’s not that appealing to me.” I was baffled! How would your life have any purpose whatsoever?? It was crazy! We also went to read the Book of Mormon with Brother Glover and his cousins were there. They were being super rude to us and telling us we were Edomites and that we were going to hell because we were white. Brother Glover kind of laid into them and told them to get out. I’m grateful to him for sticking up for us and our beliefs. We ended up having a really good Book of Mormon read with him. Reading the Book of Mormon is the number one way to stay converted to the gospel and stay active in the church. There is no way you can read the Book of Mormon every day and go less active or lose your testimony of Christ and the restored gospel. It’s just not possible! Brother Glover is a homie, and I’m grateful to have gotten to know him. I am also grateful for the restored gospel and the answers it has to life’s greatest questions. God doesn’t want us to be confused. He is a God of order and He has all the answers and will reveal them to us if we but ask, seek, and knock. In D&C 76:5-10 it says:

5 For thus saith the Lord—I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end.

6 Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their glory.

7 And to them will I reveal all mysteries, yea, all the hidden mysteries of my kingdom from days of old, and for ages to come, will I make known unto them the good pleasure of my will concerning all things pertaining to my kingdom.

8 Yea, even the wonders of eternity shall they know, and things to come will I show them, even the things of many generations.

9 And their wisdom shall be great, and their understanding reach to heaven; and before them the wisdom of the wise shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent shall come to naught.

10 For by my Spirit will I enlighten them, and by my power will I make known unto them the secrets of my will—yea, even those things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet entered into the heart of man.

What a great promise to us as mortals on earth that God will reveal to us such great mysteries if we serve Him in righteousness and humbly seek after truth. Pretty sweet!

We had a great lesson with Thome' on Tuesday and we ended up talking about patriarchal blessings. Thome was talking a lot about making decisions about who he is going to marry and where he wants to move. I felt impressed to talk about my patriarchal blessing and how it has helped me a lot with decisions I’ve made in my life. He seemed really excited to prepare to get his and see what advice God had for him to help him in his future. I’m so grateful for my patriarchal blessing and the guidance, direction, and warnings it gives. As I’ve been able to read it many many times on my mission, I’ve seen how much God knows me and the person I need to become. It’s so cool to see my progress from a year ago, but then also see how much more I need to work on as a person. It’s awesome! In Russell M. Nelson’s talk, “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for our Lives”, he says, “One of the things the Spirit has repeatedly impressed upon my mind since my new calling as President of the Church is how willing the Lord is to reveal His mind and will. The privilege of receiving revelation is one of the greatest gifts of God to His children.” God is willing to reveal his mind to us! We just have to do the things he asks us and be worthy to receive his revelation.

Well, I’m excited for my last week here in Minneapolis. It’s really bittersweet to leave behind the people I’ve grown to love so much. It’s interesting to me that it’s harder to go home than leave home. I remember when I left I was just like, “I’m just gonna go for it and not look back.” As I go home I’ve been counseled to do the same thing. Take what you’ve learned from your mission, remember the miracles you’ve seen, things you’ve learned from the Spirit, keep progressing in the gospel, and then just move forward with faith and know that things will work out as you are faithful and worthy. I’m so grateful for the experiences I’ve had here and the lessons I’ve learned. I’m thankful for the man I’ve become, and am thankful for the blessings of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know God lives, and I know his Son, Jesus Christ, is our Savior and Redeemer, and through Him we can be born again and changed and cleansed from sin. We can also be strengthened and enabled to do the Lord's work and be His hands and voice in the work here on earth. I love you all! Can’t wait to see you this Sunday, Mom and Dad! Love you guys so much!

Have a great week fam!

Much love,

Elder Beach

Working hard with Elder Akins! Did I tell you that we discovered that my dad and his mom both served together in the same mission? And now we're companions! Awesome, huh?