Monday we had our p-day and played some basketball at the church. The Austin Elders came up, so we had some pretty good basketball games. That was pretty fun! After that we had some dinner with the Christians. They eat vegan only, so we had this vegan soup stuff that was actually really good and some mixed fruit, which was bomb as well. Brother Christian is the Elder's Quorum President, so we ended up talking to him about people to work with and those we are working with for about 45 minutes after dinner. After that we knocked some doors until about 9 pm and didn’t find anyone except this Hispanic family we referred to the Hermanas. I was able to use enough Spanish words to tell him we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That was about all I knew! But he was like, “Si! Si!” Then closed the door. So I figured he wanted us to come back.
Tuesday we exchanged with the Zone Leaders, so I went with Elder Vaughn to Rochester 2. We went to district meeting for the other district in the morning and then had some lunch and then went out and contacted. We found 5, yes 5, new investigators. Elder Bowman and I haven’t found 5 new investigators since I’ve gotten here. I’m still scratching my head on that one because Elder Vaughn and I found 5 in about an hour and a half and 3 of them were solid people. Like this one girl we found was like, “I’ve just had the worst day. I’m so glad you guys talked to me!” We ended up setting up a church tour, and she said she was coming to church for sure on Sunday. I was very happy for the success we had, but at the same time, super frustrated that Elder Bowman and I can't seem to find anyone haha. It’s frustrating!! After that we had a lesson with a less active dude named Silver. He’s from Uganda and is super cool. He’s a really nice guy, not sure why he’s less active because he seems like he has a really solid testimony. We talked about reading the Book of Mormon every day with him and he said he reads his scriptures almost every day so that was sweet! We switched back after that because the Zone Leaders had some lessons in the evening and we had a dinner and coordination meeting with Brother Oesterle. Taco Tuesday was super good! His kids are hilarious and we had a nerf gun war with them in the basement after dinner and they loved it. It was pretty fun haha. We then had our coordination meeting and just talked about some less actives and other people to focus on, and Brother Oesterle gave us a pep talk to keep working hard even though the area is super slow right now. After that we headed home and called it a night.
Wednesday morning we were supposed to have a lesson with this dude that Elders Bowman and Chen found, but he didn’t show up and didn’t answer his phone, so we ended up contacting for about 2 hours in the morning. We went home and got some lunch and then helped our next door neighbor move! He was a single dude in his 30’s and was super cool! We helped him load up the moving truck and then after that did some more contacting until dinner at 4:30 pm with Sister Fieck. She took us to Panera for dinner, and it was pretty good! We ended up having such a funny discussion about Alaska and this show about Alaskan bush people she watches. It was hilarious. She’s such a funny lady haha. After that we stopped by a bunch of people before basketball and didn’t have much luck with anyone. Literally everyone in Rochester we’ve stopped by at least 3 times and nobody is interested or has answered the door. So we just keep stopping by people until they answer haha. So we stopped by a bunch of people and didn’t have much luck and then we picked up Jordan Clow for basketball and then played some ball! It was fun this week because we had like 10 people there, so we had a legit game this week. It was great. Really good competition too, so it was super fun! It was good for me to blow off some steam haha. I was just kind of done with people by Wednesday night because it was a rough day.
Thursday morning we had district meeting and it was just us, the Rochester 5 Sisters and the Kasson Sisters. It was a good district meeting! We talked about working with members, and I did a training about our purpose from Chapter 1 of Preach My Gospel. It was good, and the Kasson Sisters are super funny haha. They’re both senior sisters, but they’re super funny. After district meeting we had some lunch and then did some contacting downtown, which was a little better on Thursday. We were able to talk to some super nice people and give out some Books of Mormon. I talked to this lady who was about 25 at the bus stop for about a half hour. I was able to give her a Book of Mormon and she was like, “I don’t know if I will ever read it!” I said, “If you ever read it once and you find some scripture or verse or story that helps you in your life, then it was worth it to me to give it to you!” She thought that was cool and said she would crack it open next time she was having a rough day or was stressed out. We had a super good conversation and she didn’t want to meet up again, but it was really good, and I hope I at least planted a solid seed there. After that we had a lesson with Big John. We talked about the Book of Mormon and he was a little skeptical about why we needed it in the first place. We explained that it taught plain and precious truths lost from the Bible over time and contained the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He’s like, “Well, I guess I should read that then.” Haha he struggles with reading, so we are going to read some of it with him next week when we go over. He’s a funny dude haha. After that I went to the chiropractor to get my neck and shoulder worked on. The dude I went to wasn’t the best, so I probably won’t be going to him again. After that we had dinner with the Busbys! They are super cool and we had a really good discussion about reading our scriptures each day! They’re awesome, and I’m glad we could have dinner with them and get to know them better! So side story: right before dinner, Elder Bowman and I started feeling kind of crappy. Like almost simultaneously. So we got done with dinner and my stomach was churning. We both had like chills and felt really gross. We had two lessons set up out in Dover, so we drove out there and our first one with Dane didn't happen because he wasn’t there. So we drove to the lady he referred to us, and low and behold, he was there! So he let us in and we ended up having a great discussion with him about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. He talked about how he would pray with real intent to get an answer about the Book of Mormon. I thought that was awesome because so many people don’t pray with real intent. We both felt like death during and after the lesson, so we just called it a night at about 8 pm. When we got home I was freezing cold and Elder Bowman was puking, so I just went to bed. We basically took turns in the bathroom the rest of the night. Stuff was coming out of both ends, and it was not good. We got about an hour of sleep from 8-4 am. I ended up sitting in our recliner and reading the Book of Mormon in between bathroom trips. I was so cold and then I would just get hotter than heck and then freezing cold again. It was bad. Elder Bowman puked a ton, and we were just sicker than dogs. We finally felt a little better about 5 am and slept from 5-10 am. We both still felt like crap and kind of just sat in our beds and were like “uggggghhhhhh” for about an hour, and then I rolled out of bed and took a shower. We finally got out of the apartment and got our weekly planning done. It was a little rough going because we didn’t feel the best, but we got it done and this week people actually got back to us and we were able to set some stuff up with less actives! So that was awesome. After that we had a lesson with Dennis Hayes, who is one of our investigators. He’s super cool. He played football at Winona State in the 90’s around the same time my dad played at USU. We talked about the Plan of Salvation with him. He had a few questions from the last time we met with him, and so we were able to answer those questions and he seemed to like the answers we were able to provide for him. Haha he asked us about the “magical Mormon underwear”. We just said it’s an outer expression of an inner commitment to follow Christ and it reminds us of the covenants we make with God in the temple. He’s like, “Oh man, I thought it was gonna be a little more cool than that! But I totally respect that, that's sweet.” Haha so that was pretty good I guess. We also got to talk about football a good amount after the lesson, so that was cool too! Dennis said he wants to come to church soon, and he even asked for a homework assignment from us (reading, praying, etc.) so that was awesome! After that we did some stop bys and got in contact with some former investigators and got a few thing set up with people later next week! I also finally got to meet the Bakers. That’s Mina's family. When we got there, Sister Bartoo (new Relief Society President) was just pulling up to visit them, so we just let Sister Bartoo visit with them. Sister Bartoo is on the ball because she just barely got called as Relief Society President! After that we had some dinner and called it a night!
Saturday was a little bit of a crazy day again. We had our Book of Mormon read in the morning and we got a call from this lady who was at a Methodist church and they needed help with a big lunch they did for homeless or less fortunate people. The lady was a less active member of the church and loved missionaries, so I guess the Elders had helped out there before when they needed some help there. So that was from 11-1. We got done with the Book of Mormon read at 10 am and then helped Brother Wesman clean the church for about an hour because he was there with his 2-year-old haha and needed some help. So we vacuumed and helped out with the chapel until we had to run to the other thing. So when we got there, we got to help set up all the tables and then serve food to all the people there and talk to them while they ate! It was such a great experience for me. The people were so humble and kind and just nice people. It was amazing how many of them I had talked to in downtown Rochester while contacting. There was this one lady there who asked me what was on my named tag, so I told her I was a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She was like, “It is so refreshing to see young men in white shirts and ties out serving the Lord!” That made my day. Glad we could make a good impression on someone just by how we were dressed! Anyway, I had a great experience there, and I wish we could just do service stuff like that all the time. I absolutely love doing service for people who are less fortunate and just need some love and help in their lives. It’s awesome! After that we did some contacting and then the Sisters called us and wanted us to go to a lesson with them because they needed a third guy, so we get invited to go teach sometimes. We taught this old dude named Vick. He’s a hoot. Basically he just told us stories about hunting and taming wild animals. At the end the Sisters were like, “So Vick, will you be able to come to church tomorrow?” He’s like, “Yeah, I mean I don’t got nothing going on.... except sit around and stare at these 4 walls...” and he said something else that sounded like, “and just play with myself.” Elder Bowman and I looked at each other like, “Did he just say that?” So I was like, there’s no way he said that. He’s like super old. So we kept talking a little bit more and the Sisters were like, “So Vick, we will get you a ride to church if that works for tomorrow?” Vick says, “Yeah, I don’t have much to do except stare at these 4 walls.... and play with myself.” Then he like looks at us and winks and Elder Bowman and I almost died. The Sisters had like no clue what was going on, so that made it that much more funny. So anyway, after that we did some more contacting and we talked to this girl who was waiting for the bus. She wasn’t super interested, but I noticed she was listening to country music on her phone so we got talking about that and then she was like best friends with us. It started snowing pretty good on Saturday afternoon, so we decided to go shovel some members' driveways and stuff. So we went to the Wesmans first because they just had a baby! So we got almost done shoveling (tried to go unnoticed but that didn’t happen), and Brother Wesman comes out and is like, “Elders, thank you so much! Do you guys have a dinner?” We were like “No...” So they fed us dinner and we had a hoot with them. Brother and Sister Wesman are so funny. It was awesome! And they gave us a referral for their neighbor down the street. So we went and shoveled her driveway, and right when we got done she pulled up with her boyfriend, and it was kind of awkward, but we were like, “Hey! Trevor Wesman told us to come help you out shoveling.” She was like, “You guys are the sweetest things!” Just gushing over us and her boyfriend was best friends with us immediately too haha. They’re super nice! We are going to go try and visit them again or see if the Wesmans can hook us up with a dinner with them too. After that we shoveled some more driveways and headed to bed because we were pretty wiped out from the plague and shoveling for like 2 hours.
Sunday was fast Sunday and we had an investigator at church! He was a former we met this week named Patrick. He’s an interesting fellow, but he wanted to come to church, so that was good! Brother Oesterle picked him up and brought him to church. He basically slept through the whole Sacrament Meeting, and then asked us to take him home. It was kind of odd. He also wants to write an opera about the life of Joseph Smith. He’s a little unique, I’ll just say that haha. Anyway, Sister Averbeck came to church again, too! So it was a good day! After church we did some more shoveling and drove down to Stewartville to stop by some less actives. We met with the Reps family and they are super cool! We haven’t been able to meet with them since I got here, but it was great to meet them. Brother Rep was super busy but he’s like, “Come on in and you can chill with the kids!” So we played with the kids' guinea pig and hamster and then we shared the story about the Jadeite Cabbage with them and they thought it was pretty cool! I also played a little guitar for the kids, too. Well, just strummed a couple chords I remembered from way back in the day, but they thought it was awesome haha. The kids love the missionaries, so they have a lot of potential there. We are seeing them sometime this week once Brother Rep gets his schedule figured out. He said he’s coming to basketball on Wednesday. After that we stopped by a few more people and then headed to the Joslins for dinner! It was super good and we were both pretty “hangry” because it was fast Sunday haha. They made chicken, green beans, and salad and it was super good. I loved the green beans. After that we went to Karl and Denise's place to watch the Super Bowl with them! President said we couldn’t tract or stop by people during the game, so we made some arrangements to watch it. Karl and Denise were found by Elders Smith and Bowman last transfer, and they love having us over. They aren’t progressing a whole lot, but they’re really great people! The Eagles won and I was kind of sad about that. I was hoping Tom Brady could get number 6 on his rings. But it didn’t quite happen. That was one of the best Super Bowls I’ve ever watched though, so it was fun.
Well, time rolls on here in Minnesota. I’m grateful for the restored gospel in my life. I’m very grateful for the Priesthood that gives us full access to the Savior's atoning power and allows us to be sealed together as families for time and eternity. I’m very grateful to know that I will be able to be with my family forever and that death is merely a milestone in our eternal progression! I’m so very grateful for the Book of Mormon. I’ve found myself in it a lot this week, studying about Alma and Amulek, Ammon and the sons of Mosiah and other great Book of Mormon missionaries. There are so many great lessons and truths found in it that can be found nowhere else. I love the Book of Mormon and I am grateful for the testimony and personal relationship with it I’ve been able to gain in its pages. I’m grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and His perfect life and infinite love and support for me. He knows us all and will never forsake us. He will carry us through the tough times and help us become the sons and daughters of God we are capable of becoming. I’m so grateful for my family. I would not be where I am today without them. I love you guys so much and hope you know that! Thank you for all the prayers and support. I seriously could not do it without them! Much love to everyone and prayers up from Minnesota.
Much love,
Elder Beach
#MavUp #10
We love playing with the kids!
Can you see us?
Just another shovel day in Minnesota.
Some of Big John's John Deere collection.
Nerf gun war with the missionaries.
