General Conference Week!

Hello to all my family, friends, and coaches back home, at college, and serving the Lord worldwide! I hope this email finds you all doing well and enjoying life.  This week has been pretty good and has gone by really fast! Elder Sherwood is doing great and seems to improve daily in his confidence as a missionary. Also, big shoutout to my bro for getting his mission call to Birmingham, Alabama! He's gonna kill it, so everyone give him a pat on the back when you see him!

Monday was p day and it was pretty fun! We played some basketball at the Lakeville chapel and that was fun! There were a couple members there cuz it was spring break here so it was good and the Gretz came and played ball too! It was a good time. After that we went home and got changed and we decided to go tract this street that Elder Kemberling and I started in exchanges but didn't finish. There were a few people we had knocked into that said we could come back so we stopped by those people first. One lady, Johanna, let us in and we taught a restoration lesson to her. She grew up in Mexico and lived right by an LDS church. She knew a little about it but not much. It was a really good lesson and the spirit was definitely there. We invited her to be baptized, but she said she needed to read and pray and ask God if this was the right church before she committed to be baptized. We are teaching her again this Thursday, so hopefully she has started reading and praying!

Tuesday we had district meeting in the morning and it was really good! I gave a training on being more bold in our invites to people and challenging all those we are teaching to be baptized. Thanks Dad, for sending that talk, it was really good! I'm really enjoying being a district leader. I feel like it's helping me out more than anyone else, but it's definitely helping me be a better missionary. After that we went to Prince of Peace zone service and that was fun, as always! We had a ton of people that came to get food orders so we were super busy. There was like 30 people we did in 2 hours. Like half of those people came the last half hour, so we were scrambling the last 30 minutes to stay on top of all the orders. After that we had a lesson with Daren and Brother Hawley came joint teaching with us. It was a good lesson but it was basically just Daren asking deep doctrine questions and Brother Hawley answering them as best he could. As a missionary I've learned to teach simple, true doctrine because that's when the spirit can testify to the people we are teaching. Daren got a lot of questions answered so that was good! He's still hung up on the fall of Adam though. It's hard to explain it. Like I know why it needed to happen, it's just hard to verbalize it in a way that makes sense to someone else. Brother Gretz got hung up on the fall when he was investigating the church and has a really good explanation of how he got over it and gained a testimony of it. So we are trying to get those two together to talk about it! Daren didn't come to any of general conference and I'm not sure why. He said he had to work but he never really got back to us about anything, so it was a bummer. Right after Daren's lesson we had a lesson with Brady and Jonah about the offices of Teacher and Deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood. Brady will become a Teacher this summer and Jonah will be a Deacon. We went over the duties and responsibilities of a Teacher and Deacon with them and committed Brady to watch Priesthood session of conference with us, which he did, so that was awesome! That night we had a lesson with Bert Goff, who is a less active prospective Elder in our ward. He is working to get the Melchizedek Priesthood but he always has work on Sunday and is struggling with smoking right now. He has been trying to get work off on Sundays for like a year or more and it hasn't been able to happen for him. He also has been trying to quit smoking for like 30 years. He's down to like 5 cigarettes a day so he is pretty close to quitting! We went over D&C 107 with him because he had some questions about his reading assignment from like 3 months ago. I had only met him once before, so I didn't really know him or know what was going on. We left him to read D&C 84:33-44 which is the oath and covenant of the Priesthood. We did some tracting after that and didn't see much success and then called it a night!

Wednesday was a really busy day for us! We had a lesson at 2:30 pm with Trish, who is a newer investigator we have been teaching. She has kind of lost her faith and is trying to get it back/strengthen it. She has a lot of questions that have been unanswered for years and we are helping her find answers to those questions through the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon! She has started reading the Book of Mormon and said she likes it so far. She also works on Sundays so she hasn't been able to come to church either. Getting people to church is seriously sooooooo hard. It's frustrating. We talked a lot about how God answers prayers and having faith that He will answer them. Last time we met she wanted to talk about why bad things happen to good people. We had planned to read this talk called "God Shall Wipe Away All Tears" by Elder Evan A. Schmutz from last October conference. It is a really awesome talk and I would encourage all those who are going through difficult times to read it. Anyway, we didn't get to the talk, but we told her to read it before next week. She asked all these really good questions right before we left and we told her we would answer all of them next time. Basically all of them can be answered with the plan of salvation. After that we had to go help the Gretz move this huge couch from their basement up to their garage because Jon (Jaidyn's boyfriend) is moving out. We also moved this exercise machine down to the basement for Sister Gretz. She gave me some 35 pound dumbbells and a wall ball medicine ball so it was a good trade off. Then we had dinner with the Nelsons. Their oldest son is diabetic and so Sister Nelson was asking me all these questions about how to handle diabetes and I gave some pointers I had learned or use, but I don't know if I was that much help. Brother Ostler came joint teaching with us after that and we had a lesson with Danica Dufur and her fiancé who isn't a member. Everyone told us he wouldn't sit in on the lesson but he did! D used to be less active but is active now and she and Mitchell live together, but sleep in different rooms. So yeah.... but she is active now and he comes to church with her pretty often. He is really nice and I was glad he sat in on the lesson with us. After that we went and saw Joel and Cynthia. They let us in and we read 2 Nephi 31 with them and talked about the doctrine of Christ. We invited them to be baptized and Joel said no. Then he basically said that he didn't want to go against his family and was grateful for his dad for being a polygamist so that he could be born. Brother Ostler asked them if God told them to join the church would they? They both said they would, so he said, "The only way you're going to know that this church is true is to ask God and listen for an answer." I seriously don't even think they have a testimony of their own church, they just grew up in it and don't really want to change. They aren't active or anything in it so I don't know. It's tough. They seemed a little upset that we asked them to be baptized, but that's what we are called to do, so oh well!

Thursday we had a lesson with Harry Colwell again. He is struggling with his health a little bit. He will be 85 this week! He said he was excited to watch conference, so I'm hoping he was able to. He also told us he wants to come to fast Sunday next week because those are his favorite Sacrament meetings. We are still trying to figure out what his hold up is with coming to church. He has expressed a sincere desire to come for years, but he never does and no one can really figure out what his road block is. So that is our number one job this week with him. Before we saw Harry we stopped by this potential that Elder Wolfley and I found named Siendra. She is Cherokee, and so I told her I had some Cherokee in my family line and then she opened right up and started talking to us. Anyway, we stopped by her trailer to give her a Book of Mormon and she was really excited to get it. We told her it was a record of the people of ancient America and their dealings with God and Jesus Christ. I figured since she was Cherokee that she would like reading it for that reason. She said she was glad we brought it by because she had to go to the courthouse to do taxes the next morning at 6 AM to get in line and needed something to read while she was in line. She said she was glad to have the Book of Mormom to read haha. So that was pretty cool! We then biked down to this street we decided to tract and started knocking. Not a lot of people were home or wanted to talk, but we shared a few short messages with some people. This one guy came out and talked to us and told us he was Catholic and believed in Mother Mary and not God. He also said he didn't believe in the New Testament either, just the Old Testament. I don't know how that works, because Mary is in the New Testament, so yeah. I didn't say anything to him, just was like "Oh, that's cool!."  Some people make me scratch my head sometimes. Anyway, we knocked this one door and met this super cool guy named John. He told us he was Catholic but he thought people should be able to decide what church they belong to for themselves. He didn't baptize his kids into the Catholic Church because he thought they should be able to choose what church they went to. He was super cool and was like, "I really appreciate what you guys are doing! We need more folks like you in the world!" He said he was out of town this week but said we could call him this Friday when he gets back and set up an appointment. It was sweet. Then we had dinner at the Pugmires and that was a party. Sister Pugmire made Elder Sherwood a "greenie dinner" so we had like 10 green foods haha. After dinner we helped Brother Pugmire move a huge cupboard thing from upstairs to downstairs. It wasn't able to fit down the stairs, so we used straps and lowered it from the 2nd floor window to the ground. It was legendary (see below photos). Then we had FHE at the Gretz and we did a lesson on the Priesthood and patriarchal blessings. They've been pushing Mikey to get his patriarchal blessing before he goes to college this year. It was a good lesson and we all got to share cool experiences we've had with either a Priesthood blessing or a patriarchal blessing. It was good! 

Friday was weekly planning. Brother and Sister Seaman took us to this Chinese buffet for lunch. It was pretty good! They had some tasty salmon and sushi so I had some of that and some veggies and stuff. After that we helped one of Brother Seaman's friends named Chuck Deremo move some stuff in his house out to the truck. He isn't a member but has met with missionaries in the past and is a cool guy. We will see if he is open to being taught again. We are helping him move some furniture from his office to his house later this week! We were out of miles for the month, so we decided to walk to dinner and tract and talk to everyone on the way up. It was like 4 miles away so we left at like 3:30 pm. We tracted a few neighborhoods and didn't really find anyone but had some good conversations with people! We walked by this park where two guys were shooting some hoops. I stopped and said, "Hey, you guys wanna play two on two?" They were like no... so I said, "What's the matter? You scared of getting beat by two guys in church clothes?" They were like, "Uhhh no, we just don't want to play." I was like, "Wow ok."We talked to a few more kids playing basketball but no one was interested in playing us. We got to dinner and we had this super weird Laotian dinner. I don't know what it was but it was basically like rubber burrito things with weird meat and stuff in it. The outside part of the burrito was this white jelly stuff. It was not that great. I ended up eating a ton of tomatoes and cucumbers. After that Brother McGill came out with us to do some stop bys. We met with the Duos and had a little lesson with them. We invited Aldophus, who is a less active, to watch the Priesthood session. He said he would come, but he didn't show up. We were supposed to have a lesson with Mason Kellington, who is a less active prospective Elder. He just had surgery on like Wednesday, so we were going to give him a blessing and share a message with him. So we get to his grandparents house where his is staying and knock on the door and ring the bell and no one answers. So we called his phone and we could hear it ringing in the house and no one answered it.  We figured he was asleep or something from the pain meds haha. Then we did some more stop bys and nobody was home, so yeah..... 

Saturday was easily my favorite day this week! The Gretz invited us over for breakfast and to watch conference. They had invited some non member friends over to watch so Ariana's friends were there and then Jaidyn and Mikey, who are less active watched as well. Sister Gretz made biscuits and gravy for breakfast and it was good!  Conference was amazing this year. I absolutely loved it and I will send pictures of my notes from conference. In between sessions we got to throw the football in the QB net the Gretz have in their backyard and play some basketball at a park by their house. Then we watched the second session of conference and then I got to FaceTime home to see Jackson open his mission call! That was so great to see the family and get to talk to all of you. That was seriously like the happiest feeling I've had in a while, just being able to see my brother open his mission call and see how hard he has prepared to be a good missionary! That brought me a lot of joy, Jackson!  Then we got to go to Pizza Ranch with the Priesthood from our ward. It was so yummy! I love Pizza Ranch, and I didn't completely pig out, so that was good haha. Priesthood session was really good as well. I seriously just loved Conference.  It was great and I got a lot of answers to questions I needed. 

Sunday morning we had breakfast and coordination at Bishop Clifford's house and then Mikey's girlfriend, who isn't a member but lives at the Gretz house, wanted a Priesthood blessing, so we just went over there to watch morning session and give her a blessing. I was asked to give the blessing, and it was really good! Afterwards she was like "How did you know all those things?" Also, Sister Gretz said her wisdom teeth are feeling way better and the swelling went down a ton after the blessing. That was the main reason for the blessing was to help with that. After morning session we went to the church to open the building for afternoon session and watch the last session of conference. It was really bittersweet for me because I loved it and it had some really good answers to questions people had, but no one came to watch any sessions. I almost got like more sad as conference went on which is not what is supposed to happen. It was tough. I really want people to feel of the joy and be able to experience the blessings of the gospel, but it's tough to find those who are ready and desire it. We had dinner with the Larson family that evening. They are insane.  We had like 4 kids screaming at us, playing the piano and the harmonica at the same time while one was meowing as loud as she could.  It was crazy. After dinner we tracted and no one was super interested in talking to us. There was this one guy that was a Catholic and just went off on us and told us we were wrong and stuff. I just said have a good day and left. Elder Sherwood and I were commenting on how we both wish we could just take how we feel and what we know and give it to people for like 2 seconds so they could feel of the love and joy we have. It's so hard to verbalize it.  I seriously have never desired people to be able to have the joy this gospel and church bring more than I have right now, and it seems like people want it less than ever right now. It's hard! 

This week was good and it flew by, but it's been tough to just help people feel the spirit and know that what we are teaching is true. People just don't seem to have a desire or drive to keep commitments and make changes in their lives to help them be happy and feel God's love for them. It's a little disheartening, but I'm holding out hope and faith that someone we are teaching will figure it out or that we can find someone who is ready to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I know without a doubt this church is the true church of Jesus Christ on earth today. It is led a prophet called of God and apostles also called by God to lead and guide us. I know the Book of Mormon is true and is the keystone of our religion and will bring you closer to Christ and our Heavenly Father than any other book in the world. I'm so grateful for our loving Heavenly Father and his plan of salvation for us. I'm grateful we can repent and change our hearts and desires and improve every day. I'm so grateful for my family. I love you more than anything and pray for you each day! I'm glad we can be together forever. This knowledge brings such peace to my heart knowing that if anything happens to us we will see each other again one day. I'm grateful and humbled I have the opportunity to share this gospel. I hope and pray all of you can embrace and live this gospel that is so precious and dear to us. It is very hard to see people reject us day after day and turn away the truth and happiness we are bringing. But I know we will be blessed for our efforts to share it with the people of the missions we are assigned to labor in. God's work will roll forth and nothing can stop it! I love you all and hope you have a great week! Sending lots of prayers your way from Apple Valley, Minnesota.

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Elder Sherwood's First Week!!

Hello to all my family, friends, and coaches back home! I hope and pray this email finds you well and having a great Spring Break week! This week has flown by, and we did a lot of stuff, so this email is probably gonna be a big one. 

So last Monday was super fun! We had p day at the Lakeville chapel again and the AP Anderson (he is the new AP, he was my zone leader in Anoka my first transfer out) called at like 12:30 pm and said I was being called to district lead and train a new missionary! I was pretty excited/nervous about that, but I accepted the call. We played basketball until about 4 pm and then Sister Gretz called and asked us to come out to dinner with their family and then go to an escape room/puzzle room for Jaidyn's birthday present. We asked the ZLs if we could go because it was in Minneapolis and they said sure, so we went and it was way fun! We went to Cafe Zupas for dinner, and it was really good! I've never been there before, but I loved it! The puzzle room was awesome! It was an Indiana Jones themed room, and you had some clues you started out with and then had to solve stuff in the room and open locked drawers, paintings slide down the wall, a book shelf opened revealing a hidden room, and finally we found this "artifact" which was a skeleton arm with a gold bracelet thing on it. It was super fun and we should definitely do one when I get home!  It was a really fun evening, and we built some good relationships with Jaidyn and Mike, so it was good!

Tuesday we got up and got Elder Wolfley packed up and got ready to go and got the apartment cleaned up a little bit. Elder Wolfley got transferred down to Rochester. He was sad to go, but I think a change of scenery will be good for him because he had been in 2 areas in the same zone for 9 months straight. After that we went to Prince of Peace zone service, and that was pretty fun! Everyone was talking about their new companions and if anyone knew them and stuff. Elder Newbold, one of our ZLs that always plays ball with me on p day, had to open Waconia with Elder Rodriguez. I felt really bad for him cuz Waconia is a tough area and Elder Rodriguez is a tough companion...So anyway, after that we went to Costco for lunch and then Elder Wolfley and I hustled to have our lesson with Daren.  We had another pretty good lesson. We didn't end up teaching what we had planned, because Daren had a lot of questions about the gift of the Holy Ghost and baptism and stuff like that. He told us about all these cool missionary experiences he has had and it was interesting to listen to. He told several stories about miraculous healings and other miracles he had seen performed by people who didn't have the Priesthood. This was the second time in a week I've heard all these cool stories about people getting healed without Priesthood authority and I was like, what the heck??  Later in the week I was studying in the New Testament in Mark 9 and it talks about his very thing:

38 And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us.

39 But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me.

40 For he that is not against us is on our part.

41 For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.

I realized that even if people do those things, and even claim proper authority to do them, then it's fine because it is helping others and it isn't "against" Christ. So i figured what the heck? So anyway, after that we just visited members the rest of the night so Elder Wolfley could say goodbye to everyone! 

Wednesday was transfer day so we drove up to the mission home and it was insane haha. There were a ton of transfers so like 2/3 of the mission was there. The trainers have to hang out at the mission home or close areas all day until the greenies get there. I was with Elders Gooch, Peterson, and Harper. We went to Chik-Fil-A for lunch and met this guy who played football at Wofford and is now a youth pastor. He and Elder Gooch talked for like 45 minutes haha. Elder Peterson had the flu and was puking and had the diarrhea too. He was not doing super well so we were sitting out in the car waiting for Elder Gooch to get done talking, and Peterson is like, "I gotta go inside!" So he went in and did his business and came out and Elder Gooch still wasn't done talking to the guy haha.  Elder Peterson needed some medicine and he wanted to shower cuz he had a fever and chills, so we finally got Elder Gooch outta there and went to the Chaska Elder's apartment for about an hour before we had to be at the mission home for the arrivals. We met in the church and sat there for like 30 minutes and waited to go over to the mission home to meet our greenies. I was getting super nervous. It felt like before a football game. I had some bad pregame jitters. So we went into the mission home finally and all sat down behind the new missionaries. We had no idea who we were training or anything, and they didn't either. The Mission President's wife read some things from a letter their parents had sent and then said, "Elder or Sister so and so, you are going to Apple Valley with Elder Beach!" So my new greenie is Elder Sherwood, and he is awesome! He is from Las Cruces, New Mexico and is the oldest of 6 kids. He graduated early in December so he could come out on a mission, so he is basically a year younger than me. He is a cool dude, and we are doing really well together! He played football and golf in high school and also plays the ukulele, so he is going to have his parents send him his and teach me to play. President Forbes was truly inspired in this companionship. He also loves country music too, haha. We have a lot of similarities! So anyway, after everyone met their greenie and did pictures and whatnot, we packed up his stuff and headed back to Apple Valley. We went tracting before anything else just to give him that experience, because we do it every day. I did the first few doors to show him kind of what to say and how to talk to people. I remember when I went out with Elders Murphy and Comerer when I was still home, and I had no clue what to say when we went tracting, so I knew how he was feeling haha. He was a little nervous at first and didn't really know what to say or how to handle people saying not interested or no, but now he's like a pro. He picks up on things really quick. I'm really excited to work with him! That evening Brother Ruff came out with us and we visited Jana and Anna Jones, who are less actives in our ward. Jana is pretty active and Anna hasn't been to church in like 5 years. Jana is the mom and Anna is the daughter. We asked Anna if she would be ok if we came over once a week to have a gospel discussion with them and she said that would be great! She said she has been thinking about coming back to church but just has a lot of baggage that she needs to get taken care of first. Brother Ruff told her to talk to the bishop and have us come over once a week and she would be well on her way! After that we went down to Lakeville for Wednesday night basketball, which we found out about last week. We decided to go down because Jaidyn Gretz and her boyfriend came down to play, so it was fun! There were a ton of people that showed up and Lake Marion's ward mission leader was kind of being a jerk about getting to play because he wanted to play, but he showed up like way late. So anyway, I was on the team playing against his team and he was just complaining about how many people were there and I was getting sick of it haha.  So he comes down and pulls up for a three, and I got a piece of his shot and then got an outlet pass and out ran everyone and got a layup. He continued to whine and complain and the last possession we had, I was playing point guard and he's like getting ready for me to drive on him, and I just dribbled down and pulled up from three and drained it in his face. He was not happy. It was a fun night!

Thursday we had a zone focus meeting at the Burnsville chapel. It was a little chaotic because the Lakeville and Lakeville South zones got combined into one big zone, so we had 3 iPads with like 4 companionships skyping in on each one, plus all of the normal Lakeville zone at the church. Our zone focus this transfer is to invite 7 people to church each day. Less actives, investigators, non-members whoever. Just focus on making the invite for people to repent and come to church and partake of the sacrament. It was good! Then we went to lunch at Wendy's and I got the BBQ ranch chicken salad and it was dang good. Then I had to account with the Crystal Lake and Prior Lake Sisters for an hour and then I was like, we need to go do some missionary work haha cuz we hadn't really done anything all day. We did Windows of Heaven and ended up going to tract this super ritzy neighborhood, and it was not a successful day. Not many people wanted to talk to us haha. Elder Sherwood and I got to talk a lot while we were walking between houses, so that was good. We just got to know each other a little better! Thursday night we went out with Brother Moerschel and visited some less actives. We saw Curt Johnson again and he talked to us for about 20 minutes on his porch. He is a good guy, and I think he has some potential to come back to church. Then we went and saw Kevin and Laurie Davis. Kevin is less active and Laurie is not a member. We talked to Laurie on the doorstep for a few minutes and she said we could come back another night in the evening. We went back yesterday night but I don't think they were there because no one answered. We also met with the Howarths, who are a less active family. The wife, Katy, is a recent convert and is from Vietnam. They were really busy but told us to come back Friday at 7 pm so we said ok! Then after that we visited the Oforiattas and had a little lesson with Brian and AJ. They aren't members, but their mom is and she basically has zero interest in the church.  AJ told us all about the Harry Potter books he was reading and was super excited about those. He was so hyped. So I pulled out a picture of Captain Moroni and was like "Do you guys know who this is?" And AJ says "Hercules?" Haha I laughed but said "No, it's Captain Moroni. You know who that is?" They didn't know, so I told them about him and AJ says, "So he's basically the Hercules of the Book of Mormon?" I was like "Yeah! Basically haha!" So I challenged them to read Alma 46 and 48 about Captain Moroni and they said they would. It was pretty impromptu, but it worked!

Friday was weekly planning and that took about 3 hours. We then went tracting for a few hours and it was pretty great! 3 cool things happened and 1 not cool thing:

1. One of the first couple doors we knocked on this pretty cute teenage girl answers the door and it was Elder Sherwood's turn to talk. He literally was just like "Uhh,uhh w,.... " it was so funny. So I ended up talking to her but she wasn't super interested haha. I gave him some crap for it...haha

2. We knocked on this door and this older lady answered. We just started talking to her a little bit and taught her about the Book of Mormon. She got pretty interested and told us she had hit a few bumps in the road recently. I bore my testimony that the Book of Mormon and the savior could help her overcome challenges and feel of the love of God. We invited her to church and she said she would like to come but couldn't this Sunday. Then like 5 houses later we had another lady answer and we taught about the Book of Mormon and gave her a copy and invited her to church as well. It was pretty cool!

3. This is the not cool thing. So we were almost done with the street and knocked on this door and a guy answers and says, "Oh you're the Mormons, huh?" And we said yes and that we were sharing a message about Jesus Christ and would love to share it with him. He said he had investigated our church and read the BOM and said it didn't agree with what he believed. He said it went against the Bible and then proceeds to tell us we are leading people to hell and just tells us all this BS. I really wanted to just go off on him, but I didn't. That was probably one of the hardest things I've done in the last few weeks was just keeping my mouth shut at that moment. But I did and I felt really good after!

4. The second to last door we knocked on, this elderly lady answered and said she had met Mormons before and she was a Lutheran. She said it was always refreshing when people sharing the good word stopped by. She told us her husband had just passed away and she was struggling with it. She asked if we had any literature for her and I remembered we had some plan of salvation pamphlets in the car so I said we have something for you in the car, can you give us 2 minutes? She said "Absolutely!" So we ran back to the car and grabbed it for her and ran back and gave it to her. I told her a little bit about it and she broke down in tears and thanked us for stopping by and told us it helped her out a lot! We said we would love to come back and do yard work for her too, and share more of our message. She said she would call us if she needs help with anything. We are definitely stopping by later this week!

We had dinner at our place after that and then headed to the Howarths to have a quick lesson with them. Brother Howarth told us his wife is going to school full-time to get her master's degree and is working on her residency too, so she is home like 8 hours a week total. He said once she gets done with this semester of school they are coming back to church. We asked if we could bring his daughter's Primary teacher over to meet her and he said that would be great and we could do that! It was good to get in with them because no one had had a lot of contact with them recently. Then after that we had an FHE at the Gretz! It was pretty fun. We did a lesson about Captain Moroni and we each made our own Titles of Liberty. We wrote down what we would fight for in a war on paper and then crumpled it up and burned the edges to make it look cool haha. Then we played this get to know you game because Elder Sherwood didn't know anyone very well, and that was a party haha. Jaidyn and Mike are really opening up to us and it's been great! Kinda weird thing that happened after FHE was Jaidyn and Ariana were being kinda weird and secretive and what not. Sister Gretz was like, "Keep your eye out for your car, they might be doing something to it". So I figured they just deflated our tires or something. So we headed out and checked all the tires and nothing seemed out of place and then on my window was a sticky note that said "Beach". So I opened it up and it had Jaidyn's email address and it said "HMU... I'd come watch you play." I was just like uhhhhh...... It was kinda weird haha.

Saturday we helped the Gardners move in the morning from 9-11 and then went to the bishop's house for brunch and correlation. Then we were supposed to do a church tour with Daren at 2 pm, so we hurried to the church and he texted and said could we do 3 pm instead? So we were like yes. When we got to the church we found out that the Eagan ward was actually having a baptism at 3, so we told Daren and he was like, that's great! I'll be there! So it ended up working out really well. The baptismal service wasn't super well organized but the speakers were really good and Daren enjoyed it! He said he is planning on watching at least one session of conference with us at a member's house on Saturday this week! After that we went tracting and Elder Sherwood taught a really good first lesson and I was like, "Let's go baby!" I was pretty hyped for him. By that time it was dinner, so we ran home and ate really quick and then Brother McGill came out with us. We met with Doug Watters who is a less active that loves football. He's a cool guy. He came to church on Sunday too, which was awesome! Then we just did a ton of stop bys and not a lot of people were home or answered, so it wasn't a super awesome night but we got through almost the whole list of people Brother Ruff wanted us to stop by, so that was good at least!

Sunday was pretty great! We had 4 less actives at church and 3 of them stayed for all 3 hours, so that was great. We are really struggling to get people to church that are investigators. We invite people like crazy but they never seem to show up. After church we went and did training, which is supposed to be incorporated into your daily schedule when you are training, but we haven't had time to do one yet haha. So I figured we should probably do one.  Then we went to visit the Bradfords because they weren't at church, and we hadn't seen them for a while. It was a really good visit! We gave Brother Bradford a blessing and it was really cool. This really was good for me too, continuing to solidify my testimony of the Priesthood authority I hold. It is the true Priesthood authority from God, and even though others may do miracles in the name of Christ, I know the authority I hold is the correct authority! It's hard to explain haha. Juan Gandarilla came out with us joint teaching on Sunday night. He is a priest and has kind of a rough home life, but it was good to get him out with us. We took him tracting and he even did a few doors, so that was cool! We did some stop bys and not many people were home until we stopped by the Bigboys. They are going through a rough patch still. They can't seem to catch a break. So we get there and the mom tells us that Justin is in the hospital with a collapsed lung and is having surgery today or tomorrow. She said they were planning on coming to church but with all the craziness and him being in the hospital, it just hadn't happened. She said they had taken the kids to get new church clothes and stuff on Saturday, and were planning on coming and then he had to go to the hospital, so they ended up not being able to. Please keep them in your prayers. She was really glad we stopped by to see how they were doing and stuff. I'm glad we did because we almost didn't, but we felt like we should, so we did.  We didn't have a dinner Sunday night either, so we worked from after church until 8 pm and then did dinner cuz we didn't have an 8 pm appointment. We did some studies and stuff and had dinner. Great week and it was fun and I learned a lot!

One thing I learned this week is that this work is God's work, and it is all about love. The first day Elder Sherwood was here and we tracted, I kind of got into a bible bash with this lady about the Bible and Book of Mormon. I was basically just trying to prove her wrong based off of my own knowledge. I felt really bad after and I was like, I'm never doing that again. The next day I was reading chapter 4 of PMG and there was a line that really hit me: We live in the day prophesied by Book of Mormon prophets--a day when people will “contend one with another, and they shall teach with their learning, and deny the Holy Ghost, which giveth utterance." Then it had 2 Nephi 28:4 which talks about people contending one with another and not letting the Holy Ghost teach. I realized I need to just bear testimony and leave it at that and not try to prove people wrong. The Holy Ghost is the teacher and not me. I'm just there to be a conduit through which the Holy Ghost can teach people! It was a really good learning experience for me. I love the gospel and the opportunity we have to repent daily and change our hearts. I kind of get fired up when people tell me I'm leading people astray or I'm going to hell for believing the Book of Mormon is true. I realized I just need to bear my testimony and leave and not contend with those people. It's all about having love for people and just sharing what you know to be true because you love them and want them to have it as well! Anyway, I love you all and hope you are all doing well and have a great week!

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

My new companion, Elder Sherwood!

My "Title of Liberty".

Visiting the Gretz before Elder Wolfley's transfer.

Transfers!

Hello to everyone back home, at school and serving the Lord worldwide. Hope this email finds you well and happy! I will be district training this upcoming transfer so I'm excited to train and hopefully not corrupt my greenie haha just kidding.  It should be fun and I'm really excited! This week has been really good so there's a lot to write about......

Monday was super fun last week! The whole Minneapolis zone came down with the APs to play basketball at the Lakeville chapel with us. We had some dang good games going, and it was way fun to play with all my old buddies from the Minneapolis zone. For lunch we all went to Costco. Costco is like Sam's Club but better haha.  It was dang good! P day was super fun last Monday! After p day was done we decided to stop by a less active family I hadn't met yet.  Their names are the Gardners.  It snowed like 5 inches last Sunday and Monday so we shoveled off their porch and driveway and then shared a quick message with them. They are actually moving to Monomonie this Saturday, so we also offered to help them move! It was good. Then we went and tracted this street kind of by their house. It was in the way northern part of our area where we hadn't really been much. So we tracted for about an hour and a half and the very last door we knocked on this old lady answered and talked to us for a little bit. She said her husband wasn't super interested in our message, but she listened as we told her about the Book of Mormon. It was cool to see her literally change her mind as we taught her about the Book of Mormon on her doorstep. Haha it was a good way to cap off the night!

Tuesday was zone conference for most of the day and it was fun to see Elder Peterson and Elder Nielson and Vaughn from Minnetonka. The trainings were really good and all of us were asked to create a 4 minute lesson plan on repentance. Certain companionships were called on to teach their lessons to us, and it was really cool to see how each companionship taught repentance. The Mission President is always stressing to us that repentance is a change of heart and becoming more like our Savior. So if an investigator reads the Book of Mormon, that's part of repentance! It's super cool! It makes repentance way more appealing and real to me when it's not just like,  "Oh, I committed adultery," or "I broke the Sabbath so I have to repent," and it's a big scary process. It is a process but it's changing our will to be in line with God's will and changing our hearts to be more like our Savior. It's awesome! I've really grown to love the repentance process the last few weeks as I've tried to live the Doctrine of Christ in my own life more and more. So at zone conference, Sister Jensen, this crazy old lady in our ward texted and said, "Call me about dinner." Nobody had signed up to feed us that night so we were just going to eat at our apartment. Then she texted and asked us if we were at zone conference and we said yes and then said we have a 4 pm and a 5 pm appointment right after zone conference. She never texted back, so we assumed she wasn't feeding us. So anyway, more on that story later! Right after zone conference it was like 3:45 pm, so we hurried and ran to our next appointment at 4 pm. The APs got me an EZ curl bar and 2 45's so I'm pretty set with weights stuff right now.  Anyway, we had a great lesson with Daren! We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and really focused on repentance. He really opened up and told us some stuff he had done earlier in his life and how he had changed and repented of it. It was really emotional and spiritual and the Spirit was very strong there as he told us how he pleaded with God and his wife to forgive him for the things he had done wrong. I felt God's love so strongly for him as he told us this story. We invited him to be baptized on the 15 of April, which is the day before Easter, and he said he was "honored, and would talk to his wife and pray about it!" I'm really hoping he gets baptized soon! He's really ready and he's still plowing through the Book of Mormon, which is awesome! Then we had a lesson at 5 with Brady and Jonah, who are the recent converts. We taught about tithing and the word of wisdom. It was a super good lesson and Brother Seaman joint taught with us. He had a really good story about tithing and we committed them to start being full tithe payers. Brother Seaman and his wife, who isn't a member, took us to dinner afterwards at Perkins. It was really good! I had a healthy breakfast burrito and fruit.  After dinner we did some tracting, but didn't see much success haha. 

Wednesday morning we get up and do our normal morning routine and what not. At like 9 am we get a text from Sister Jensen, who I mentioned earlier. And she was super chapped at us because apparently she had gone to the store and bought us dinner and then expected us to be at her house at 5 pm or whatever. But we didn't know that because she never told us.... So she had called brother Ruff''s wife and just railed on us and said she was never feeding us again (which I'm totally fine with), but it was just poor communication all around with it and she is super sensitive. Brother Ruff just told us to apologize profusely to her at church, but she didn't show up so we didn't get to and she won't answer our calls or texts so we are sitting tight for now with that whole situation.

 Wednesday ended up being a pretty solid day. We went and visited Bob Hosman in the old folks home. He is a hoot. He has dementia and tells us the same story every time we go over haha. He tells us how he met his wife and how they got married. It's such a cool story, so I'm good with listening to it each time we visit! He loves his wife so much, it's awesome. She passed away a few years ago and you can tell he misses her dearly.  Anyway, when we first got there he pulls a $5 bill out of his wallet and tells us to go buy a hot dog. We were like, "Uh ok!" He says "It's the 4th of July, so go buy yourself a hot dog!" We thought he was kidding, but he thought it was the Fourth of July! It was pretty funny, but hey, we got to celebrate the 4th of July with him!🇺🇸  After we visited him we went and did some tracting in the southwest part of our area and taught two first lessons and gave away two Books of Mormon. We are getting really good at that, just people are always like, "Yeah, I'm not super interested," after they listen to our message and stuff. It's frustrating, but we are getting really good at teaching doorstep restoration lessons! After we tracted we had a lesson with the Bigboys finally. We read 2 Nephi 31 with them and committed them to come to church so they could partake of the Sacrament and feel of the spirit that comes from that as we do it with a humble and penitent heart. They said they would be there, so we were holding out hope. Justin still hasn't found a job yet, so continue to keep them in your prayers. We also found out they are in a custody battle with Justin's ex-wife to have his kids be with them. His ex-wife doesn't take care of them very well, I guess. Wednesday night we went tracting and talked to a lot of people, but no one was very interested again haha. Then we had a lesson with Cynthia and Brother Ruff. Joel was gone for work in North Dakota. We taught her the plan of salvation using my plan of salvation kit and it was a good lesson. She remembered a lot of it because she already knew some of it, but it was a good refresher for her! She has a really strong testimony of it too, which is awesome! It was a good lesson and a solid day overall

Thursday we did like 20 stop bys and tracted for a few hours. I honestly don't remember a whole lot haha. It was a pretty slow day though. We tracted for like 2 hours and didn't see a lot of success. Thursday was one of those really slow days you have as a missionary. Thursday night was much the same. We did stop bys of less actives and prospective Elders and then had one lesson with this guy named Anthony. He was a new investigator on our area book, so we set up an appointment with him. He is a little crazy. He is 23 and is a really cool guy. He is the kind of guy I would be friends with back home. But he thinks he's basically Jesus, so it's weird haha. He told us his whole life story basically and it was a little odd. He said one day he had a revelation to change his life cuz he partied and did drugs and stuff. So he got a bible and started reading it. He had a friend who was a pastor in a church. His pastor took him in his truck and said, "Are you ready to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior?" And then he was like, "Yes". He said he immediately heard God tell him he was forgiven and saved. So he thinks he is saved because he is a professed believer in Christ. He thinks he doesn't need to be baptized, but he believes the Bible to be the word of God. In the Bible it says, "Repent and be baptized in my name." So I'm not really getting his logic. Anyway, he thinks reading the Book of Mormon is against the word of God. He's read some of the Book of Mormon and he said God told him it isn't true. He basically thinks any thoughts he gets are from God. That's his problem. He told us he's cast out devils and has healed people by laying on of hands haha. He thinks the whole world has the Priesthood authority. So he has some different ideas. At the end of the lesson, he asked Brother Moerschel if he had Parkinson's. He said God told him the word Parkinson's. I was like what the heck? He asked if he could put his hand on Brother Moerschel's shoulder and heal him from Parkinson's, which he didn't have. I was seriously like what the heck is going on during his prayer. It was so weird. Thursday was just a long, weird day. 

Friday we had weekly planning and then we did some stop bys and visited the Bradfords. Their two daughters were there and we got to talk to them for a while and it was cool. We showed the "Hope of God's light" Mormon message and they really liked it. We also talked about "The War Room" and "The Shack" movies and the messages in those haha. Then we had a quick dinner with the Gordhamers and then stopped by the Youngs to see how they were doing. They are moving to Idaho soon, so we helped them pack some stuff and they said to keep their son Lewis in our prayers because he is struggling with his testimony. He's like 16-17 years old. I feel like at that age it's normal to question the stuff you believe. It's just that that's when you need to work hard to find out for yourself what you believe. You have a solid foundation from what you've been taught your whole life and then you have to read and pray and battle to find out for yourself what you believe. You have to build your own testimony or you won't ever get one that is solid! We tracted for about 2 hours to end the night on Friday and it was great! We found this young dad named Nate whom we taught a first lesson to, and he accepted a Book of Mormon and said we could come back this week. We also found this Russian lady named Elena, who took a Book of Mormon and also said we could come back this week! It was a good night of tracting. God definitely rewards us for working hard. If we have faith, trust in the Lord and then just go to work, we can see miracles!

Saturday we had breakfast at the Bishop's house and did our correlation meeting. His son, Spencer, has some mental problems but he is the funniest, sweetest little kid ever. I always laugh when we go over because he loves us haha. After breakfast and stuff we did some more stop bys and talked to Curt Johnson who is the less active guy we met with a few weeks ago. He said he would come to the linger-longer on Sunday, but he didn't show up. We did windows of Heaven tracting on Saturday and ended up tracting this super rich neighborhood. It was like Minnetonka status and no one, like literally no one wanted to listen to us. Elder Wolfley wanted to dust his feet off at the end of the street.  But we agreed it probably wasn't the best idea. Then we tracted this other street and talked to a ton of people. We talked to this guy named Matt who was in his car on the street and he said he believed in God but didn't really have a strong faith. He lost his dad two days earlier to pancreatic cancer. Elder Wolfley talked to him about that because his dad passed away from the same thing. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he accepted it and said he would read it. It was really cool! Then we met this old lady who said she thought the Bible is the word of God. I said ok! Do you know 2 Corinthians 13:1? She said no, so I read it to her and she was "ok...." then I told her that's why we need a Book of Mormon and also, because it teaches the true doctrine of Christ and is evidence that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God. She seemed to more or less accept that but didn't take a Book of Mormon. Then we met this guy who went to the U of U and was super nice but didn't want to hear anything. He said he had heard it all already but he was super nice! Then we had dinner with the Ds and it was basically the definition of chaos. Haha it was insane. We had a member lesson scheduled, but they totally forgot and were gone so we went to the Davis's and they had an archery range in their basement, so we shot arrows for like 15 minutes. Brother Davis said he had watched all 5 seasons of "Friday Night Lights" and he started like 3 weeks ago. Then we went to the Gretz to make a cake for their mom's birthday and for the linger-longer at church. It was fun and we shared a really good spiritual message about the refiner's fire. It was good!

Sunday, no one showed up to church, but Mike and Jaidyn Gretz showed up, so that was good! I also got to talk in church about "Hastening the Lord's work" and it went pretty well, I guess! Haha Sister Jensen didn't show up to church so we couldn't say sorry to her. I'm starting to get comfortable with the ward and them with me, so that's been great. Cynthia and Joel and Daren and the Bigboys didn't come, so it was kind of a bummer. It is seriously so hard to get people to church. The linger-longer was awesome, but the Eagan Sisters scheduled a baptism for 3 pm so our linger longer was like 30 minutes long. Bishop Clifford was a little upset because we had the linger-longer scheduled for like 3 months, and they scheduled the baptism last week. I don't know why they did it on Sunday, but it's good! After that we went tracting in these town homes by the old folks home. It was the most productive day of tracting I've ever had.  We knocked 10 doors, taught 3 first lessons, got two new investigators and gave away 3 Books of Mormon haha. All that in an hour. It was crazy! Then we went to Stew Peterson's birthday party at the old folks home for a few minutes. He is Sister Davis's dad and is super funny and cool haha. Then Brother Stanich took us and the Lake Marion Elders to the President's fireside up in Bloomington. Daren was going to go, but texted us on the way there and said he had to stay with his family that night because he had to work Saturday and Sunday morning. We went anyway, and it was awesome!! I got to see Bishop Patterson and his wife and the Nelsons and the Fishes and the Ragans from the Minnetonka ward! I sat with Bishop and we talked for a long time haha. They said they want me to come back and serve there again, and I would kill to go serve in Minnetonka my last 1-2 transfers of my mission. That would be my dream come true. Sister Nelson and Brother Ragan spoke at it, so it was really good! It was so awesome to see everyone. Jeffrey and Steve Jordan were there too, and I talked to them for like 15 minutes each. It was great!  Haha when we were doing refreshments in the gym this Sister, Sister Apadale comes running over and is like, "Elder Beach, hi!" And I was like, "Hey what's up?!" I looked at her name tag and I was like, "Oh, were you in my second grade class?" and she was like, "yeah!" So we talked for a while haha. It was funny the things we remember from 2nd grade. I also talked to Elder Dygert for forever because he is going home this Wednesday, which is crazy! Sunday was a pretty great day! 

Today we went to the Lake Marion Elder's place to do laundry, and they got "Tangled" approved to watch, so we watched that while we did laundry haha.  That was fun! Then I got a call from the APs saying that I will be district leader and training a new missionary in Apple Valley this transfer. That should be fun! I'm excited to train and I hope I can be a good trainer. It's been a great week and I've definitely seen the Lord's hand in our work. I've really learned to persevere through the grind and just work hard this transfer. I love you all and hope your week has been great. Shoutout to my amazing momma for her birthday last Saturday! Love you so much! Love you all!  (Not in a weird way haha)

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Elder Beach and Elder Dygert who goes home this Wednesday!

Making 2nd grade reconnections!

So great to see friends from the Minnetonka Ward!

Minnetonka Ward friends.

Making great connections!

Trying to remember how to do archery from my Webelos days...

The Snow Has Returned!

Big hello to all my family, friends, and coaches back home, serving the Lord worldwide and at college! Minnesota has become the "great white north" once again, as we received several inches of snow yesterday and temperatures dropped into the teens.️ It's been a pretty good week, with its ups and downs for sure. I'm really loving the mission though.

So last Monday was p-day and we didn't really do much. We went to Taco Bell and got the new triple double crunch wrap cuz Elder Nissenbaum said it was super good, and I hadn't ever had one, so we went there for lunch. It was pretty good! This zone isn't the greatest for playing ball on P days. Most people just sit around and play board games or email all day, so it's tough to get a good game going. But me and Elder Nissenbaum and Elder Barrett, who's a Spanish Elder, played Big Pot, Little Pot, which is a shooting game for basketball. I hit 7 half court shots in a row haha. It was pretty sweet! We went to Red Robin Monday night to get a burger (shoutout to Uncle Mike for the money!) While we were there, Daren comes up to us and was like, "Hey friends! How's it going?" And we were super surprised to see him there, but we said it was going good and asked if we were still good to meet up tomorrow and he was like, "Yeah, I've read the whole book of first Nephi and I have a lot of questions!" Our jaws proceeded to drop to the floor haha. But we said, "That's great! Can't wait to discuss them!" It was raining cats and dogs Monday night and we had planned to do some tracting, so we decided to do weekly planning and make phone calls and get appointments set up for that week. When Brother Ruff came out with us we weekly planned for like 45 minutes and didn't get much done, so we finished it up. It was so cool to see Daren at Red Robin and the fact that he had been reading was awesome!

Tuesday was district meeting in the morning and I gave a training on the missionary plan that Brother Ruff gave us, and I think it went pretty well. The APs came down to our district meeting (not sure why) but they both said it was a really good district meeting! So that was cool.  After that we had service at Prince of Peace, and there were a lot of orders this week so we were busy filling orders for like an hour and a half. Then the main guy that runs the show there was like, "I need 4 guys to help move some stuff," so I volunteered along with Elder Newbold, Nissenbaum, and Freihner. They got like 10 pallets of pillows from Costco. So we got to move these huge boxes of pillows into storage. It was pretty fun! After service we did a zone blitz of Lake Marion's area cuz they are struggling with finding investigators. I went with Elder Nissenbaum and we tracted and the first house we knocked on these two kids that looked like they were in 7-8th grade answered. We talked to them for a little bit and gave them a Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet, and they said they'd talk to their parents about it and see if we could come share more with them. I doubt if anything will happen with it, but it was cool cuz we got to talk about football with them and they were pretty cool kids. We didn't see a whole lot of success after that. Most people said they already knew our message or weren't interested. So when we got done, Elder Wolfley and myself hurried to our meeting with Daren. It went really well! He had some really good questions from the Book of Mormon and we were able to answer them and clarify them. One question was, Why did Nephi kill Laban when it is a commandment to not kill? We explained that in that chapter it says, "It is better for one man to perish than for a whole nation to dwindle in unbelief." He said that made sense since Nephi's people wouldn't have had the scriptures or law of Moses or their genealogy if they didn't get the plates. So anyway, we taught the plan of salvation and it went pretty well. We drew out the picture with it and used scriptures from the Book of Mormon and bible to clarify and back up what we taught. We got really hung up with the Fall of Adam and Eve. He felt like if Adam and Eve hadn't eaten the fruit, we all would've just been born into the Garden of Eden and lived perfect happy lives. We explained and explained that the purpose of life is to have to make choices and learn and grow. I don't know what we said, but finally something clicked, or the spirit touched his heart or something, but he finally was like, "Oh! Ok I got it!" And then explained to us perfectly why the fall was essential to the plan. It was super cool! He took a lot of notes and said he wanted to read 2 Nephi 2 and Alma 40 to learn more about the plan of salvation. He really is interested I think. He told us he is a man searching for truth about God. I hope he can recognize that this is the truth and it will bless his life so so much. After dinner Brother Connolly came out with us. He is the Assistant Ward Mission Leader. We stopped by some less actives and members that no one has seen or heard from in like a year. We found this guy named Curt Johnson. He is a pretty cool guy! He is a less active that is way more converted to the social side of the church than the actual gospel of Christ and the church. He seemed like a guy that we could get back to church if we can get him around people in non church situations. He just needs some good friends in the church to help him out! That was about it for Tuesday.

Wednesday we had a lesson with Trish, who was a potential investigator we stopped by on exchanges and said we could come back. She said she was really hesitant to meet with us when we got there, but once we started talking to her about the restoration and our message she opened right up and actually agreed with a lot of the stuff we taught her. She said that she feels like all churches change to fit society's standards and it shouldn't be like that. If God is unchanging then shouldn't his church be the same? We said, "Yep, that's how it should be!" And we talked about how the Bible has so many different versions and stuff and she was like, "Yeah I totally agree. I don't know why so many different bibles exist?" She told us her dad was a retired pastor, and he even changes his beliefs from time to time. She said she would read the Book of Mormon and ask her dad why there is so many different versions or translations of the Bible. It was a really good lesson and she said next time we come over she wants us to teach about why bad things happen to good people. Should be a good discussion. Right after that, we went to see Harry Colwell again. He was having a rough day with health issues. We showed him the Power of God Mormon message and talked about the Priesthood, how important it is and what a blessing it is in our lives. When we were planning our lesson for him, I felt like we should ask him if he wanted a Priesthood blessing. So I asked him, and he said he would really like one. He asked me to give it and it was awesome! I seriously love giving blessings so much.  It is such a cool experience to be the mouthpiece for the Lord! We had an appointment with Joyce finally set up for Wednesday at 4 pm. Brother Seamen was going to joint teach with us, so he met us there, and of course, Joyce wasn't there.  I am really getting sick of people not being there when they say they will be. So Brother Seamen was like, "Come sit in my car and we can chat for a few minutes." He basically taught us how to use questions to make a lesson become a gospel discussion instead of us teaching the whole time. I feel like we already do a pretty decent job at that, but he had some good tips so it was good I guess. We had dinner with the Lewis family again! They are pretty great. I love having dinner with them haha.  It's a party. We had an appointment set up at 6:15 pm with this guy in Rosemont that we had tracted into and he said we could come back. He texted us at 6 pm and said it wasn't going to work, and we asked if we could come back another time and he never answered so I don't know if anything will happen there. W e did a few stop bys and then decided to tract some town homes that are in the way south part of our area. It was like 6:30 when we started and we didn't have a lot of success at first. This one guy answered the door and said he had already heard our message. I said oh yeah?! And he was like yeah. I said ok, so what's our message then. He just blankly stares at us (cuz he obviously didn't know it) and then he shut the door. People make me so mad sometimes. I'm like seriously! Just listen to our message for like 5 minutes. Everyone I've met who sincerely listened to us for 5 minutes actually likes what we have to say. It's sad.  Anyway, so we tracted and basically no one listened to us at all. I was getting pretty bummed out and it was like 8 pm. We had like 10 more town homes to knock, so we started down the last street and the first door we knock this guy answers and just lets us right in! His name was Joel and his wife's name is Cynthia and they have a little girl named Skylar. They said they were "lost Mormons" and were from a branch off a colony that went to Mexico from Utah and practiced polygamy and believed Joseph Smith's posterity should've been the next prophet. They didn't really know anything about the church and hadn't been active in their church. They wanted us to teach them about the restoration and Book of Mormon. They also said they wanted to come to church on Sunday haha, so it was pretty cool.  We taught them the restoration lesson and they said they'd come to church on Sunday. So Wednesday ended up being a good day! We definitely saw a miracle finding them. 

Thursday morning we tracted for an hour after I had to account with the ZLs. We finished knocking some town homes by where Joel and Cynthia live. No one was home for the first 10 doors we knocked and then two houses in a row said they were going to call the cops on us. The second one basically went like this:

Me: "We are representatives from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints..."

Crazy guy: "We aren't interested."

Crazier lady: "We are calling the cops on you!"

Me: "For what?"

Crazier lady: "For harassing us!!"

Crazy guy: "Honey, now isn't the time..."

Me: "We are just sharing a message about Jesus Christ."

Crazier lady: "I'm calling the cops right now!"

Me: "Have a nice day"

They didn't call the cops, so yeah. People are so crazy. This week with tracting hasn't been super productive and I have wanted to seriously ask some people if they were dumber than a box of rocks sometimes. It's hard when people just say really stupid stuff to just look at them and smile and say have a nice day! And still have charity for them. It amazes me the love God must have for us even though we do and say really stupid things. After lunch we visited the Bradfords at the old folks home. They are so great! We showed the Mormon message "Mountains to Climb" by President Eyring. It was really good. Brother Bradford has been struggling with his health lately and it was a good one for him to see. They are the nicest people. They asked about my grandparents and I showed them a picture of our family after Jackson's football game and they were like, "That is the sweetest looking family!" I was like "Yep! My family is awesome!" I am very grateful to have such a great family. I've realized how lucky and blessed I was to grow up in a great home that taught me the gospel and taught me how to work hard for the things I wanted. Thursday afternoon we did some stop bys and finished tracting this street that was a nicer neighborhood we had started earlier in the week. We didn't have much success there either. Man it's been a tough week tracting! We've still been doing windows of Heaven to know where to go tracting, and it just doesn't seem to be working as of late. I don't know why. I've had success with it my whole mission until like the last 2 weeks. Not sure why? Thursday night we did splits with Brother Lyon and Brother Moerschel. I got to go with Brother Moerschel haha. He is an interesting guy! He drives really slow everywhere we go and then gets mad at people for tailgating us.  We did some stop bys to some less actives. We stopped by this guy named John Wade. He answered the door and had a nose ring and tattoos everywhere but he let us right in! I figured he would be a nice guy cuz usually people with tattoos and nose rings are nice people I've found haha. So we shared a quick message with him and his kids and he said we could stop by today or tomorrow so that was cool! I asked the bishop about him on Saturday at coordination and he said he's a really good guy! We finally had a lesson with Melina and Zack on Thursday night. They're super nice people but man they're flakes. They haven't met with us since before I got here cuz they cancel literally last second every time. But I finally got to meet with them so that was good. We shared the new Ask of God video on LDS.org with them. They liked it and we invited them to church and promised that if they read, pray, and come to church (CPR) then they will see blessings in their lives. God will bless them to be able to provide for their family and have many blessings. Well, they haven't come to church and didn't come this Sunday either. They have a lot of struggles in their life right now and if they would just do the little things, they wouldn't struggle as much because of the peace the gospel brings! 

Friday was weekly planning, so we got started on that and we get a text from Brother Moerschel. He's says "Do you want to go to Farmington Steakhouse for lunch?" And we were like heck yeah haha. So he took us to Farmington for lunch. We are definitely going there when we go back to visit Minnesota.  It was super good! So after that we  finished weekly planning. After that we tracted some town homes up in the north part of our area. Haha once again, not many people wanted to talk to us. We had dinner at the Hongs that night and they are super awesome! They're from Blackfoot, Idaho and have a little girl. They're like in their mid-20's and are pretty cool. Brother Hong served in Dallas, Texas. Then we tracted right by their house after dinner. We said we are going to knock 10 doors. So the very last door we knocked this younger dad answers and says he wants to hear our message. So we shared a quick restoration message with him and he listens to the whole thing and then when we ask him to accept a Book of Mormon he says, "I actually don't believe in God, so sorry guys. I studied theology in college and I don't think there is a God." Then he shut the door and I was like wowwww.... Then we went to the Gretz house to a FHE with their family and the boyfriends and girlfriends who live at the house that aren't members. Sister Gretz had asked us to pray about what to do for the lesson. We felt we should share a lesson on forgiveness and repentance. So we split into groups and read the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15 and the story of Alma the younger in Mosiah 27. It was a really good lesson and at the end of the lesson we showed the Mormon message "The Savior Wants to Forgive." It was a really good lesson and Sister Gretz was crying at the end and told us that is exactly what her family needed at that time. Their son Mike is 17 and he is less active and his girlfriend lives at their house, and their daughter Jaidyn is 20 and her boyfriend lives there, too. Their daughter and her boyfriend participated in the lesson but their son was really pushing Brother Gretz's buttons about participating in the lesson. He sat in on it but didn't really do or say anything. He did make Oreo cheesecake for the treat though, so that was good! Then we played Pictionary and that was a party. It was a really great night and I feel like the Gretz family might be one of the reasons I got sent here to Apple Valley. I really hope we can help out their kids.

Saturday I felt like we basically ate food all day. We had breakfast at the bishop's house and did coordination meeting, and then we went and finished some studies, and then we had lunch with a less active named Suoa Ly. She is from Laos and is Hmong. She is super, super nice and fed us two whole fishes, rice and chicken. It was super good. Then Saturday afternoon we did some stop bys of some former investigators and potentials and then did some tracting. We actually found one guy who said we could come back next Saturday and he took a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet. So that was good! Every now and again you find someone to talk to! So for dinner Sister Ekanem, who is this African lady in our ward, gave us this huge thing of rice and salmon and chicken to eat. It was super good but I was so full from lunch, I didn't eat much.  Saturday night Brother McGill came out with us. He is a ward missionary and is a really shy and quiet dude. We stopped by the Duos, who are a less active family. They wanted a copy of the Bible so we took them one and showed them Mormon message about William Tyndale translating the Bible into English. It's a good one. Then we went to visit this guy in our ward named Brother Sauser, who is like 32 and isn't married. He seems lonely at church, so we stopped by to visit him! So we get there and it was like a total nerd cave. Like he had Lego star wars stuff everywhere and was playing legend of Zelda when we got there. Haha it was crazy. We shared the Hope of God's Light with him and asked him to pray for an increased desire to do missionary work. That's been what the bishop has asked us to do instead of asking for referrals. Ask the members to pray for an increased desire to do missionary work. It's weird, but out here, if you ask people for referrals, they don't feed you or let you come over much, so... yeah. I don't know why, but that's how it is. I hope it isn't like that back home.   We went and visited the Leavitts, but they said they had the plague at their house and everyone was sick. They said to come back next week. They're the less active family struggling with their testimonies and stuff. Then we went to see the Oforiatas, and they didn't answer. So it's like 8:30, everything has fallen through. So we stopped by this one family that hasn't been to church for like a month. They said they were sick too, and didn't let us in either.  We stopped by two potentials, and by then it was 9 pm so we headed back home. 

Sunday we headed to church and it was Ward Conference so that was fun. President Noches is awesome. He is the Stake President. We were expecting Melina and Zack and the Bigboys to be at church, and we had two rows saved for them and they didn't show up, so we were pretty bummed out. However, Joel and Cynthia showed up and stayed for all three hours! They really liked it and said we could come again this Wednesday night to teach them. The Davis family and some other families just jumped all over fellowshipping them, so that was awesome! I was really glad to see that! It started snowing way hard after dinner, and we went and tracted this street we felt we should. So we knocked the whole one side of the street and literally no one was home or immediately said not interested. Then we start on the other side and this black lady opens the door and she's like, "I'm a born again believer so I'm saved. All Jesus asks us to do is to pick up our cross and follow him." I was going to "Bible bash" (just point out some things from the New Testament that would make her think about what she just said), but I figured she wasn't worth it, so we just kept going.  Then the next lady we talked to answers the door and says, "Jesus was born, died on the cross and rose on the third day!" I was like, "Yeah, that's exactly what we teach!" She's like, "Oh... well I believe in Jesus so I'm good." I was like, "Have you ever heard our message before?" And she's like, "No, but I believe in Jesus so I'm good!" It was at this moment, the whole week's worth of frustration just kinda came down on me. I basically like lost all hope in humanity. It sounds dramatic, but I was just like, "Why does no one anywhere in our area want to hear this message??!!" It is the greatest message in the world! And no one wants to hear it. I don't know why???? I was pretty bummed out for a few minutes. Then we went to dinner at the Peterson's house, and that was good! Then we did a one hour blitz at Lake Marion's area cuz they are struggling worse than us. So I guess I don't have much to be sad about. It had been snowing and there was like 3 inches of snow on the ground, so when we got to the apartment the Lake Marion Elders weren't there. I was like, "Elder Wolfley, let's go knock doors and offer to shovel people's driveways if we can share a 5 minute message with them." We had brought shovels with us so we just went to a neighborhood by their apartment and started knocking doors. The last door in the neighborhood was this Indian guy. He said we could shovel his driveway and share a message with him. So we shoveled his driveway and he let us in and he and his wife listened to our restoration message. They really liked it and took a Book of Mormon and gave us their number and said they're going to come to church in a few weeks. I seriously was like, "Man, why can't this happen in our area?" It was 8:45, and so we headed back to the Lake Marion apartment and gave them our find. They said they had stopped by a member's house and the member ended up having a referral for them, so they got hung up there. It was such a dumb blitz, but we ended up finding someone so it was cool.  

Man, I felt like a door to door salesman this week haha. It was tough, but what's cool is that the thing we are "selling" is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that His church has been restored. I'm really hoping we can find some more people to teach this week. In PMG it has a quote from President Hinckley that basically says, "Each morning missionaries should wake up and plead with the Lord to soften the hearts of the people and that they can find those who are ready for the message of the gospel." I've found myself doing that more and more than ever this last week. Things always get worse before they get better. We are just in a slump right now and I feel like soon things will pick up in our area. I've really gained a strong testimony of the atonement this week. As I was studying the prodigal son and Alma the younger, I realized that I had never really poured out my heart to God and asked for forgiveness for my wrongdoings. I began to think back on the times I had messed up in my life and basically I had an Alma the younger/ Enos experience. Like my soul was "racked with torment" and I felt godly sorrow. I prayed with all the energy of heart for forgiveness and I felt God's love for me like never before. It was such a feeling of peace and love. It's hard to describe, but I literally was just super happy and had "no more desire to do evil." What a cool experience and a testimony of the atonement and God's love for me and each of His children. God will never turn us away when we humbly come before Him. I have a strong testimony of that. I've also found myself turning to the Book of Mormon more and more. I'm reading Jesus the Christ and the New Testament, but the Book of Mormon is really where I find myself wanting to study from and I read it too, along with those other books. It has a power in there and answers to questions you can't find anywhere else. It really does contain the fullness of the gospel of Christ. I would invite all to read it and study it. Apply what you learn to your life and pray to know if it is true. If you do, God will not leave you. He will answer your prayer and confirm to your mind and heart that it is true and it is the word of God. I love this church and this gospel and I love being able to share it with people, even if they're few and far between haha. Thanks for the prayers and emails. They mean the world to me and help me during the down days. You are all in my prayers and I love you all!

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Zone basketball on p-day.

We found a Pikachu in the snow.

Some cool stuff from a book I'm reading.

Lunch at Farmington Steakhouse.