What’s up to all my fam, friends, and coaches back home, at school, and serving the Lord around the world! Hope this email finds you well! I’m so grateful to be serving a mission at this time. As I’m getting nearer to the end, I’m truly just so grateful to be here. As my family and I have been talking more about school and my life decisions after my mission, I’m just grateful for this time I have where I can just fully focus on Jesus Christ and devoting my time to sharing his gospel. It is truly a marvelous time where I can just have one goal and purpose and I don’t have to worry about anything else but helping others and myself come closer to Christ. It’s awesome, and I’m sad my time is winding down, but I’m loving the mission and it’s awesome! I am getting transferred to Rochester 1st Ward this Thursday, so I will be down there probably for the rest of my mission or pretty close to it. I’m super excited to serve with Elder Bowman. He came out with me and it should be fun! So here’s how our week went:
Monday was p day and also the New Years 6 bowl games for college football, so we moved our p day back to the evening and worked in the morning so we could catch some of the games at Applebee’s in the evening. We had a bomb lesson with Diane in the morning. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and she loved it. I’m so hyped for her and I’m sad to leave. We got a date set with her for baptism and now I have to leave. It’s sad. So anyway, we read 2 Nephi 31 with her and it was great. I love how simple the gospel is, but how great and awesome it is at the same time as well! We got another appointment with her set up for Sunday afternoon, so more on that later. After that we stopped by a less active dude named Terry. He lived in Annandale and we visited with him for a little bit. He got baptized in Apple Valley (go figure) and then moved to Annandale and hasn’t been to church since he’s been here. So we are going to start working with him to help him get active again! After that we went to Rockford to get some free Dominoes pizza from Brother Herdklotz. He’s a good dude and hooks us up with some pizza sometimes. We got the pacific veggie one and it was pretty good! We did our laundry and emailed and stuff and then went to Applebee’s to watch the games! It was fun and the Princeton Elders came with us, too! We got some bottomless chicken tenders and fries and we kept telling them just chicken tenders and and not fries and they would always bring us fries and we were like, “We don’t want fries!!” It was pretty funny! It was fun though, and I’m glad we got to do that.
Tuesday morning we did some stop bys in Monticello and then got some groceries on the way home. We met a few less actives that had some good potential so that was solid. After that we had some lunch, comp study and then headed to Rockford to do some work for the day. We hadn’t worked in Rockford ever, so we figured it was time to get down there haha. We did some tracting for about an hour and fifteen minutes. We talked to a bunch of people but nobody was interested and we didn’t give away anything. Not even a card. It was rough. And it was snowy and pretty cold. But we got it done and had a good time haha. After that we stopped by Sister Cagle. She is the only member in her family. Her husband took his name off the records and is pretty anti church now for some reason. All her kids are less active and a few of them took their names off too. She told us she just had a solid testimony of the gospel and didn’t have a falling away. So she’s still active and teaches Primary, but she was super appreciative of the visit. I was able to give her a blessing and it was great! She was very glad for it and I was glad I could help her with that! After that we did a few more stop bys and met a few crazy people haha. After that we had a lesson with Paul and Melissa and read the Book of Mormon with them. We asked Melissa if she had prayed about the Book of Mormon. She said she had and she knows it’s true, she’s just content with where she’s at. She isn’t allowed to take sacrament at Catholic Church and I don’t even think she goes to it because she comes to church a lot with Paul. She said she’s happy where she’s at. There isn’t much we can do with her at this point. She won’t get baptized, so it’s tough to know what to do. She knows the church is true, she just won’t make a commitment to join even though she knows it’s true. So that’s a bummer. After that we went home and had some dinner and worked out and called it a night.
Wednesday we had district meeting in the morning and then did some finding after. It was cold! And nobody wanted to chat with us much so that kind of sucked, but it was good haha. After that we did some lunch and comp study and then we went over to the Yarco's house in Monticello and met with Kyle for a little bit. He’s a young man in the ward and likes the missionaries a lot so we went over and just visited with him for a little bit and talked about how he’s doing and some stuff he’s being struggling with. He’s a good kid, just needs some good friends and direction in his life, so the missionaries have been that for him over the years. We are continuing the tradition! After that we had dinner with the Murdoffs. He is the Ward Mission Leader and we’ve never met with him. So we called him last week and were like, “Are we ever going to meet and have a coordination meeting?” So he said to come over for dinner and have a coordination meeting, too. So we did that and it was good. After that we had a lesson with Kristen Lamont and her family. We met her sister, who lives with them and is also less active, and she sat in on our lesson too. We taught them the restoration and invited them to read the Book of Mormon each day. It was really good and they seemed to like it and committed to read it as a family each day! So that was pretty good! After that we stopped by some people we had found tracting and this one dude we had very briefly met named Brett let us in. We found out he was Jewish and was super nice and was really interested in the Book of Mormon. He took one and said he was for sure going to check it out! So that was sweet. We had a good evening of stop bys, so that was awesome! It was great!
Thursday we blitzed Princeton, and Elder Woolley and I went with Elder Loveland. It was pretty fun! We spent a lot of the day in the car just driving around doing stop bys. It wasn’t the most productive blitz I’ve been on but it was fun to hang out with Elder Loveland for the day because he is a funny dude haha. So we basically just drove around and stopped by a bunch of people haha. After that we headed home and had some Subway for dinner. After that we had a really good lesson with Chase at the church! He’s doing good, and we taught him the Plan of Salvation. He really liked it and had some good questions and insights. One thing I thought was really cool was he had some really similar beliefs to us on the fall of Adam. He was like, “Yeah, there was a lot of good that came out of it!” So we were able to discuss the pros and cons of the fall and how Jesus Christ overcame the cons of the fall. So it was really cool! We also set a baptism date with him for February 10th. So that was awesome! I’m super excited for him. He’s got some great potential and seems genuinely interested in learning and making and keeping commitments with this.
Friday morning we did some more tracting and didn’t really find anyone super interested, but it was good and we gave away a few Books of Mormon. After that we headed to Hutch and met with the Baptist Pastor dude we met while tracting. He was such a nice guy and we talked to him about his church and stuff. He’s the Pastor at Cornerstone Church, which is one of the biggest churches in the area. He basically was like, “If you follow Jesus then you’re good to go.” He didn’t believe you have to be part of a specific church, so we ended up teaching him the restoration and talked about the Priesthood authority you need. He had read the Book of Mormon before and said he didn’t agree with things in it, so he didn’t believe in it, just the Bible. I find it odd that so many people that read the Book of Mormon say they don’t believe it. There is literally nothing in it that contradicts the Bible. There are things that expound on teachings in the Bible, but nothing directly changes what’s in the Bible. It just enhances and makes it more clear. He didn’t seem to want to accept that though, so that’s his choice and there isn’t much we can do about it. After that we tracted in the death cold for like an hour and didn’t find anyone, so after that we headed down to Hutch and had some dinner and weekly planned and that was pretty much our day haha. We played some church trivia game we found in the apartment Friday night and that was pretty fun. We were pretty good at it haha.
Saturday was a good day! We went out to Cosmos in the morning and nobody Elder Layton and I found was home. Then we had a lesson with the Herrins. We showed the “Hope of God's Light” Mormon message and invited them to pray each day as a family. They said they could do that, so that was good. After that we headed to the the Smoky Hollow down in Fairfax for some lunch. The Gohnerts in the Willmar Branch own it, and they said whenever we were down there to stop in for a bite to eat. So we stopped in and had some burgers and visited with them about some people we should visit in the Willmar Branch and who would be worth visiting with the High Councilman over the Willmar Branch. So we got some names and headed out. We stopped by a bunch of people in Buffalo Lake and Gibbon and some other towns around there. We ended up visiting with Sister Goodeman, whose husband is not a member of the church. She’s had some crazy health problems in the last few years, so it was good to see her. Her husband was a hardcore German Catholic haha. But he’s a super nice guy. We shared the Mormon message called, “Lifting Burdens” with her that talks about the atonement of Jesus Christ. She really liked it, and we invited her to make it to church as much as possible. She said she would be there as often as her health allowed, so that was great to hear. After that we had dinner with the Patinos in Glencoe. They’re awesome! Brother Patino is in like full on member missionary mode and is getting after it with sharing the gospel with people, so that’s awesome! They’re good people and we had a good time with them. After that we had a lesson with Lloyn Thurn. We watched the conference talk by Elder Renlund from this last conference about the Priesthood and the atonement of Jesus Christ with him. He’s working on getting the Priesthood, so we felt that that would be a good one to watch for him to learn more about the Melchizedek Priesthood and the duties and why we even need the Priesthood! He liked it and he’s doing good. I feel bad for him, he’s a pretty lonely guy I feel like, so visiting with him always brightens up his day. So that was good! After that we headed home and did some working out and called it a night!
Sunday we had church at the Hutch branch and I got to bear my testimony in Sacrament Meeting. We watched “Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration” this week in our spare time, and I just received once again such a strong witness that he was a Prophet of God. It was cool, so I shared my testimony of Joseph Smith. After church we got all our stuff packed up and headed up to Annandale to meet with Diane again. We retaught the restoration, just to make sure she fully understands it. It was a really good lesson and we were able to relate it super well to her. She loved it, and we also gave her a priesthood blessing. She said she felt like she had evil spirits inside her and was angry a lot so we gave her a blessing to help her have the Spirit and feel peace and love. We left her with Moroni 7 to read about charity and how we can attain it, and told her to pray each day to know if the Book of Mormon is true. We showed her part of the restoration movie of the first vision. She said she had this weird feeling and felt like she had butterflies in her heart. We explained to her that that was the Spirit witnessing the truth of it to her. We told her to pay attention for that feeling as she reads and prays. We also set a date with her for February 10 for baptism, so that is sick. After that we headed down to dinner in Montrose with the Otises. We ended up being there for almost 2 hours because they just kept telling us stories about how they joined the church haha. It was really cool, and they seemed really happy to have someone visit with them, so we figured it was ok to be there that long. They’re good people and love the church a lot. We had 2 lessons set up with less active families Sunday night and both fell through, so we ended up tracting some town homes in Rockford and found like 5 people, so that was awesome. We also found this lady who told us her husband was a member that we had no clue even lived there and we could come visit them next Sunday. I won’t be there, so that kind of sucks, but it was a cool thing to find them! After that we headed home and called it a week.
I’m loving my mission right now! It so awesome to be out here. The work has really picked up in Buffalo and Hutch and I’m excited for it to continue to roll forth. I’m grateful to be able to start working in Rochester and helping people there come unto Christ and be perfected in him. I truly am so lucky to be part of this work. It’s awesome. Love you all and hope you have a great week!
Much love,
Elder Beach
#MavUp #10
We thought we saw the "real" Santa in the parking lot. However, he was smoking, so we knew it couldn't really be him...
Lunch at Smoky Hollow.
Elder Layton literally falls asleep every time we get in the car!
If he's not sleeping, he's posing...
Zone P-day!
