July 4th and It's HOT!

     Howdy and hope you all had a great 4th of July watching the fireworks and eating good food with family and friends! This week's been pretty insane. Nothing ever goes as planned here in Sauk Rapids. Everything we plan falls through and so we basically end up finding most of the days. We occasionally get appointments that hold up but it's crazy.  We honestly never know what each day will bring!

     So on Tuesday we had zone p-day at the Kroska's farm in the St. Cloud Ward. They have like 120 acres of woods and trails and a lake. We did some service in their gardens and around their property for a few hours and then had p-day. I went fishing with Elders Slade and Harper for a while and we caught a bunch of little fish, and then we played catch with the football in the sprinklers because it was hotter than heck!  So it was pretty fun to just hang out with everyone.  Elder Slade, Elder Boothe and I sat out on the deck for like 45 minutes just talking about funny movies we've seen and dying laughing.  I was crying I was laughing so hard haha.  Those guys are awesome! That was pretty much it on Tuesday!

     Wednesday we had district meetings in the morning so we skyped into those. I got to skype into the Buffalo district meeting and Elder Harper gave a training about loving those we serve.  He did this activity where all of us dm'd in people we have loved on our missions.  I was amazed at how many people I've grown to love on my mission. I can't wait to come back and visit all these amazing people some day!

     Wednesday afternoon we did a bunch of stop bys and then tracted this street kind of out of town in Sauk Rapids a little ways. It was super hot - ️like 92 and super humid. Anyway, we found 2 new investigators and had some really good discussions with people, so it was fun! I love tracting when people will at least talk to you. When people are mean and don't want to talk, it is a grind sometimes haha.  Like when it's super hot and people are not receptive, I just get a little mad sometimes haha. But I'm getting better at controlling my "road rage".  Wednesday night we went out to Foley, which is like 30 minutes East of Sauk Rapids. We had a bunch of people to stop by out there. We stopped by Bill Gilliam who is an investigator we hadn't met yet.  He was outside having a smoke with his dog and told us he doesn't have a job and his family is falling apart and he gets high all the time. It was really sad. He was super down in the dumps. We talked about finding comfort in living the gospel and how it gives us the strength to overcome our difficulties. I also got to give him a Priesthood blessing to help him with all he was going through, and he said he felt way better afterwards so that was awesome! When we drove away I looked over and he was kneeling on the ground praying (that's what it looked like), and I just felt so much love for him and felt awful because of all the struggles he is going through. I wish we could've done more for him, but we pretty much did all we could do. After that we stopped by Carol and Sterling Ducket, who are this older couple who live where a less active used to live. Sterling thinks all religion is corrupt and wrong but all religious books are correct. So he was going off about how some book he read about Adam and Eve was scripture.  He's interesting. Carol is more open to listen and Sterling just likes to preach like he knows everything. She roasted him one time because he said all we wanted to do was preach to him and she's like, "They can't because you never shut up!" I had a good chuckle at that.  We had to head home after that so that was Wednesday!

     Thursday morning we had a lesson with Flora! Ethan Baker, Spencer's little brother, referred her to us right before he left on his mission. She is friends with Laurel Dickerson in our ward, too, so we had a lesson at Laurel's house. Her parents are atheist and don't believe in God or anything but she believes there is a God, she just doesn't know who He is or anything like that, so we taught the restoration and taught about the nature of God and how He is the father of our spirits and loves us and wants us to be happy.  It was a super good lesson and she accepted a Book of Mormon after the lesson and said she would get baptized! So that's super good! We had a lesson with Sister Brainard in the afternoon and that went pretty well. She has so many problems and we have no clue how to help her. We just listen to all her problems and then share gospel things that will help her. She loves having us over though, so that's good! I think just having someone to talk to helps her a lot. She lives alone in this kinda rough part of St. Cloud, so she always appreciates when we come visit her. After that we tracted this neighborhood up north of Sartell. The first house we got to this lady was out picking berries on her tree, so we asked if we could help and she said, "Oh no, I'm good!" Then she started giving us these berry things and they were super good! Anyway, we got talking and she had had a super hard life so far, and we set up a time to come do service in her garden for her. She took a Plan of Salvation pamphlet, and was somewhat interested in the gospel, but service will soften her up.  We then knocked the whole neighborhood and no one was home or wanted to talk, but the last door we knocked this older lady answered and we taught her about the Book of Mormon and she took a copy and said we could come back later next week.  Also she might call us to do some service for her as well! I love service. We had dinner with the Dohms after that and Sister Dohm told us all these crazy stories about working with crazy people at the hospital.  Brother Dohm and their son, Theron, drove us up to Royalton to visit some less actives up there. We met the Lynch family and had a good discussion with them. Sister Lynch is from Grand Junction, CO, so we talked about CMU for like 10 minutes.  We shared a part of President Monson's talk about the Book of Mormon from last conference and invited them to read from the Book of Mormon as a family each day. They're a super nice family, just don't have a big desire to come to church or anything.  We stopped by some other less actives after that and called it a night. 

     Friday we weekly planned forever..... and ever..... and ever.  It just seemed really long this week. I don't know why? Brother Christie was supposed to drive us up to Little Falls, which is a 75 mile round trip. He cancelled last minute again so we were pretty bummed about that. We had two lessons set up and no one could go up with us, so we just drove up ourselves! We stopped by a few people and decided to knock two doors across from a less active who wasn't home. The first door we met was this dude who was a pastor at his church and he knew it all. Let me tell ya. So he told us he had read the Book of Mormon and didn't agree with what it taught. I asked why and he said he didn't want to get into details, but he just didn't agree with it. I always love when people can't give me a reason, just that "it isn't true." He told us Jesus Christ was the last prophet, so Joseph Smith was a false prophet and that the Book of Mormon was false as well because it was written by Joseph Smith. He said in order for it to be scripture, it has to be written by prophets. So in my mind, I'm thinking, "Ok, so Jesus is the last prophet, and in order to have anything be scripture, it has to be written by a prophet. So is the whole New Testament not scripture?" Because everyone after Jesus wasn't a prophet according to this guy. It didn't really make sense. I don't say much to people like him who think they are right because they don't want to hear what I have to say, so I just don't say anything. It also cuts down on lots of arguments cuz I tend to get a little heated when defending what I know to be true. But if I don't say anything, then I don't argue.  Anyway, he said he would read "What is the Blueprint of Christ's Church" by Tad R. Callister, and we could come back and talk to him some more. He told us to read John and it would teach us all about Jesus. I just got done reading John, and I have to agree that is does teach all about Jesus! After that we had a lesson with the Dobsons and it went really well! We talked about accountability and taking charge of our actions and doing what's right even when it is hard. They committed to start reading the Book of Mormon together each day and coming to church regularly again. They came this Sunday so that was awesome!

     Saturday we stopped by some people we found tracting and didn't have much luck with them. We were supposed to have a lunch and lesson with a less active lady named Sister Harris. Her son is an unbaptized child of record so we wanted to meet with him as well. He is almost 10 and really wants to get baptized. However his mom is less active so it's hard. Anyway, we called her at 11 AM to confirm and she said we were good to come at 1 PM.  So we show up and buzz her apartment and some guy answers and says she's asleep and we can't come in. I was a little cheesed at that point, so we just walked around and talked to everyone we saw and unfortunately no one really wanted to talk haha. We stopped by Jay and Ryan's place and both of them were there and sober, amazingly.  They showed us their garden and said they were trying to grow a 100 lb pumpkin.  They're interesting guys for sure! After that Jay wanted to show us this gospel rap group. They were actually more satanic I thought. So we listened to that, and it really drove what little spirit was in their home away. Elder Myer was like, "Hey, can we show you a rap video?" And they were like, "Sure!" So he pulls up Restoration by James The Mormon and they loved it haha. It was amazing how much James The Mormon could bring the spirit into a room, but he sure did! We decided to peace out after that before we had to listen to any more satanic gospel rap.  Jay and Ryan are good guys, they just do stupid things and cuss like sailors. We aren't quite sure how to help them right now, haha, but we are working on it. We had a lesson with Mark after that. He's the less active YSA member we are working with. He is progressing and growing spiritually, he just won't admit it to himself. I don't know why. At one point in the lesson he told us when people ask him about his faith he just says, "I don't know if I have any. My relationship with God is, I'll stay out of his life and he stays out of mine." I was like, "Look, Mark, you're trying to build a better relationship with God. You're reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church, praying, doing those things. It takes faith to do those things and to try and build a relationship with a being you can't see with your eyes. It takes an incredible amount of faith to do those things. So next time someone asks you if you have faith, you look them in the eye and say, 'Heck yeah, I have faith.' Because you have a lot of faith." It was super quiet and awkward after that, and he finally just said, "Thanks." And I could tell he meant it! That was a cool moment of my week.  

     Saturday night we tracted these townhomes and talked to a lot of cool people and gave out a few Books of Mormons and set up some return appointments for next Saturday! Then Brother Charter came and did our apartment inspection, and we had coordination meeting at the church. 

     Sunday we got up and it was raining, so the lady we had planned to do service for called and postponed to later this week. So we did some stop bys and no one was home, which was a bummer. Sunday mornings are pretty dead around here. People like to sleep in or something haha. We had Ward Council and then I got to talk in church! I spoke on the how to overcome apathy. I didn't know what apathy was until this week so that was good I learned haha. We had 2 investigators at church and some less active families as well, so it was good! The chapel was almost full this week, which is a huge improvement from my first day here. After church we stopped by some people we found tracting and set up some return appointments with them and then had dinner with Brother Charter's family! That was pretty fun as usual. His kids love us and it's always crazy haha.  After dinner we tracted this street in Sartell and found a lady who we taught the whole restoration to and she took a Book of Mormon and said we could come back on Sunday and teach her whole family. I'm super hyped for them! They might be golden. The door right after that was a whole different story. We knocked on the door and the door was open but the screen door was closed, so this lady at the top of the stairs was like, "What are you doing? Quit sharing a false gospel!" I was like, "Excuse me ma'am, but we are sharing the true gospel!" She didn't like that, so she came down and started railing on us about how we were deceived and we're going to hell. Then her husband comes from upstairs and just has a normal conversation with us while his wife keeps yelling at us that we are liars and are sharing a false gospel. The husband was way nicer, but had similar views. He told us he used to be religious but now found Jesus and was saved because he believes in Christ. He said as soon as he dies he is going to Heaven. I was like, well it doesn't quite work like that, but he didn't want to hear it, so Elder Myer tried to kindly teach them, but they just kept yelling at us.  Finally I just wasn't having it anymore. They obviously wouldn't listen and were being idiots, so the wife was like, "In Revelations it says you can't add to the Bible so the Book of Mormon is false!" I was like, "Well it also says that in Deuteronomy 4. So is the rest of the Bible false?" She just got mad and started yelling at us that we didn't believe in Jesus because Jesus was God and we believe He is the son of God so it's different and we are deceived. The dude told us that since he is a husband, father, and grandfather, that means God can also be 3 different persons but one being. Biggest load of crap I've heard in a while, but he didn't want to listen to me expound any New Testament scriptures that make it very clear that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are 3 separate beings. Elder Myer was just trying to bear his testimony and the dude was going off on us and so we just said, "Bye!" And left.  Elder Myer turned to me and said, "Wow! I'm surprised you didn't punch a hole in their screen door!" I was a bit surprised, too! Not gonna lie! I can sit and listen to people argue religious points, but when they tell me I'm wrong and deceived and I'm gonna go to hell, I get a little pissed off.  But I'm learning to keep my cool and just leave and not "Bible bash."  After that we had a lesson with Reegan and Emily Bird. Reegan is less active and Emily is a Jehovah's Witness, but she is super nice.  We talked about the Plan of Salvation with them and invited them to church and to read 2 Nephi 31 before we meet next time. After that we ended a quick lesson with President Baker and his family. We had a super good lesson about fasting and everyone shared miracles they've seen from fasting!

     Biggest lesson I've learned from this week is how Satan uses truth and twists it into a lie and allows us to find solace in it. So many people we talk to say, "I've found Jesus, so I'm saved" or "I believe so I'm good to go, talk to someone else." While it is good to believe in Jesus Christ, we need to live his gospel and participate in the Priesthood ordinances associated with it. It makes me sad how many people don't understand this and completely reject it. As I wrote my talk about apathy, I realized how big of a problem this is in our society today. DO NOT BE COMPLACENT WITH WHERE YOU ARE AT SPIRITUALLY!!! Satan will attack you anywhere he can if we are complacent. We need to develop the "What lack I yet?" mindset so that we are continuously striving to improve and overcome our weaknesses and doing all that we can do as Lehi teaches in the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 25:23). Keep reading the Book of Mormon daily, praying with all energy of your heart and striving to repent and become more Christlike daily. I know that as we do this, we will find true peace and happiness in this life; peace that comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! Try to stay cool! ️ It's hotter than heck up here in Sauk Rapids and super humid, too. To my brother who leaves for Alabama soon,  I know how you will be feeling in a few weeks, just to a lesser degree.  Thanks for all the love and support! Till next week. 

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

The Mississippi River.

St. Cloud Zone on the 4th of July.

Elder Myer wearing a tank top the Sisters gave him as a joke.

The picture on the left is "The Minnetonka Gang": me, Elder Gooch, my companion in Minnetonka, Elder Nielson, another of my companions in Minnetonka, and Elder Vaughn, one of the members of my MTC District (Elders Nielson and Vaughn were companions in Minnetonka as well).  The picture on the right is Elder Neilson's Mom, my Mom, Elder Gooch's Mom, and Elder Vaughn's Mom.  They got together for dinner in Utah this week!

Crazy busy week!

     Hello to my family, friends, and coaches back home, at college and hastening the work of the Lord around the world! I love you all so much and miss you guys. Summer is in full bloom here and the work is awesome!  I seriously love being a missionary! It's so hard, but it's fun and I treasure each day! Today we are having a zone p-day at a member's farm in St. Cloud, so my email will just have the highlights from last week since we did a ton of stuff and had a busy week. 

     Nothing too exciting to report from Monday except Elder Myer and I played catch with the football for about an hour. It felt good to get out and throw a little. I still got it pretty good, but will for sure need some practice when I get home haha.  We had dinner with the Otis family Monday night. They are super awesome. They have 3 kids all under 5-years-old, so dinner was a little crazy. Brother Otis is way cool and served in California for his mission like 8 years ago. We had a super good discussion about the Book of Mormon, and they told us they are reading one and marking it with someone in mind to share it with. President Baker (the Stake President) issued that challenge to members in the stake in January, so we are following up with everyone on it! Most people are doing pretty well on it so that is great! After dinner we tracted for about an hour. We decided to do this street by the Otises and we just walked down the street and knocked whichever house we felt inspired to knock. We ended up knocking only 4 houses because we talked to all four people and they happened to be all on the same side of the street! We met this guy who owns Lily's Wings which is this restaurant right by our place, and he was awesome! He knew some previous missionaries and we taught him a restoration lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon. He said he was going on a trip for work and would read it on the plane.  I was like, "Let's go!!" Pretty good Monday night.

    Tuesday morning we decided to go do some contacting/tracting at St. Cloud State because our ward is a YSA magnet ward so we can teach college age kids too. We were walking around on campus and saw this girl sitting out on the steps of an apartment smoking, so naturally we were like, "Hey, let's go talk to her." She told us she was studying to be in music ministry. So basically she is like the leader of a "worship group" or the group that sings at rock 'n roll churches. Anyway, she said her parents were super scared of Mormons and she had always wondered why and actually had a copy of the BOM on hold at the library! I was hyped, so we taught her a restoration lesson and about the Book of Mormon and gave her a copy and have an appointment with her tomorrow! It was sweet!  After lunch we went and saw this guy named Jerrry. He is a big African American guy and he met Elders Myer and Nelson a while back. When we showed up he was pretty drunk and told us his aunt had just passed away. We were able to say a few prayers with him and talk about the plan of salvation a little bit. He said we were his "Bruhs" so that was sick haha.  And he said he had to go out of town for the funeral, but we could stop by this Sunday! We then had a lesson with Jared Mastey, who is our recent convert. He is very interesting.  You can't really explain him, you just have to experience him. His conversion story is, he broke into a friend's house to steal something as a joke, found a Book of Mormon and stole it and read it and realized he needed to get baptized.  So he started meeting with missionaries and got baptized.  So he gave me a tour of his house and all his movies and video games and stuff, and then we had a lesson about the Priesthood, which was super good.  He is getting interviewed for the Priesthood this week! We had dinner with Sister Kennedy and her friend, Dave, after that. Dave came to church last Sunday and we taught a restoration lesson with him at dinner. He took a Book of Mormon and said he would get baptized if he read it and came to know it was true, so keep him in your prayers for that! Tuesday night everything fell through so we tracted for a long time and the last house we knocked we found this lady named Kristen. She opened the door and had this super cute black lab and I was like, "Oh hey! That's an awesome dog!"  I started playing with it and she just opened right up and talked to us! So we walked down the street with her and her dog and taught her the restoration while we walked! She said we could come back in a few weeks and do some yard work for her, too! Then Elder Myer bought us some Culver's shakes.  

     Wednesday we had district meetings in the morning and then had a lesson with a less active guy named Jason Squires. He went on a mission to Argentina and married a non-member and is less active now and none of his kids are baptized or anything. He isn't super interested in the church, so I don't think we will be going back much. He can come to church, but says he can't because of his work schedule, so yeah... Anyway, after that we went and had a lesson with Adriano and his wife, Kassie, who are new investigators that we found on exchanges last week with the Alexandria Elders. Adriano is a Brazilian Christian rapper.  He's more interested in learning and not really converting. He gave us this insanely bogus theory about the trinity, and I almost lost it. I was like how can you believe that? His theory was so insane I was just like, "I'm done!" haha Anyways, we ended up just teaching about the Book of Mormon and inviting him to church and to read it and pray about it. We went out to Foley to have dinner and a lesson with the Cosgroves. Spencer Baker went out with us and it was really good! The Cosgroves are doing super well. Sister Cosgrove came to church last weekend, so that was awesome! We taught about the Plan of Salvation and used the Book of Mormon a lot to teach. Brother Cosgrove loved it and we gave him a lot of new perspectives and insights to why the Fall was necessary. It was a good lesson. 

     After that was done we stopped by some people in Foley and met with a less active guy named Randy Albright. He was a hoot. He talked and talked and talked.  We invited him to church but he didn't show up. Haha. We will probably start working with him though!

     Thursday we went on exchanges with the Buffalo Elders! It was awesome. I went with Elder Beutler to Buffalo and Elder Slade came to Sauk Rapids with Elder Myer. Elder Beutler is a cousin to my JV center in high school! Elder Beutler goes home this transfer so that sucks because I've only served around him this transfer, but he is way cool! We had 3 lessons with less actives.  We also got to split wood for this less active guy. So we split wood and didn't chop wood. He has this wood splitter machine, so we just haul huge logs over and the machine splits the logs into firewood. It's sick! His dog was insane and ferocious and scratched my arm.  He's kind of a crazy guy and he has all these assault rifles and shotguns and stuff in his house and makes his own ammo and stuff. He said if the world goes to heck he's just gonna live at his house and kill game and live off it and stuff.  It was funny! We did some less active stop bys in the evening and did some drifting and hit like 98mph on a back road. Elder Beutler's favorite quote is, "I gotta go faaasstt!"  He's so awesome. I had a good time on the exchange and we taught some good lessons, too. 

     Friday we exchanged back and stopped by some people in Clear Lake and then drove back up to weekly plan at the church. We pounded out weekly planning really well this week, so that was good! We did a pretty long companion inventory and just talked about how we feel about the zone and what we each can work on to help missionaries in our stewardship. It was good, and I think we've made some good plans and I hope they go well. We had dinner with the Bridenstines, who are a part-member family in our ward. They are super cool! Brother Bridenstine isn't a member, and he is really hesitant to make strides towards baptism, but he reads the Book of Mormon with his family every day, and comes to church sometimes. So Brother Charter was supposed to drive us up to Little Falls, and he called and canceled at like 5 minutes before we were supposed to go. So we had to drive up there and blow a ton of miles. So we get up there and our one appointment cancelled on us.  It was sad. So we ended up tracting and met this dude who is from Texas and he lives in Little Falls now. He had met missionaries before, but had never read the Book of Mormon or anything, so we taught him about that and gave him a copy and he said we could come back up this Friday.  So Friday ended up being really good even though we had everything fall through haha. 

     Saturday morning we tracted this way out of the way little street in Sauk Rapids. We started and knocked a few doors and then saw these two guys playing basketball in their driveway, so of course we went over and asked if we could play! They were like, "Heck yeah!"  So we played 2 on 2 for about a half hour. Then we started talking about what we do as missionaries and the amazing message we share. One of the guys, Cody, said his mom was a member in North Branch and he is a member but the church isn't for him. The other guy was not a member but he took a Book of Mormon and said we could come back to their place next week. Basketball is very effective missionary tool, in my opinion. After that we did some stop bys in St Cloud in that sketchy neighborhood where Jay and Ryan live. We stopped by and Jay was home and we talked to him for a while. He was sober, so it was much easier to talk about the gospel with him. We shared the story of the brother of Jared and how he had to make his own plan and then asked God for help (end of Ether 2, start of Ether 3). Jay said he felt like that is super true in his life, so that was cool. He said he isn't super comfortable coming to church, but we might get him out for a church tour soon hopefully! After that we chalked a "Plan of Salvation" on the bridge from St. Cloud to Sauk Rapids that goes over the Mississippi River. It was pretty fun. Elder Myer hasn't ever chalked before, so I figured it was time to show him the joys of it! We then had a lesson with a less active named Kirk at the church. He went on a mission to St. George, Utah, and is now not active and stuff. He is 25. He asked us to help wake him up for church. Church starts at 1 PM, so we said we'd call him at noon haha.  He didn't answer on Sunday, but we left a message and unfortunately he didn't show up.  We tracted after dinner for like an hour and half and nobody was super interested, so that was a bummer.   Then we had a coordination meeting with Brother Charter and met this old lady who lives in his building and she came and talked to us for like 15 minutes. She said she was a believer and was good to go, and then starting bashing on Jews and stuff, which I thought was weird. She was a little crazy, but very nice.  I don't know if we will be visiting her in the future haha. 

     Sunday we did some stop bys in the morning before church and tracted some and then went to church. We had Matt come to church again and also have a lesson set up with him for the 13th. I'm really excited for him, and I think he has some good potential. He is a YSA investigator that's been coming to church for a few months, but hasn't met with the missionaries much. We also had some of Ethan Baker's friends there, too! He is Spencer Baker's little brother,  and is leaving this week for Columbia. One of them we are teaching this week with Spencer as a fellowshipper! After second hour of church we went down to Brooklyn Park to meet our new Mission President, President Barney. He is super awesome and I'm really excited to work with him!  He and his wife seem super cool, and I know they are here for a specific reason to help us and serve with us. Sunday night after that we stayed with the Medicine Lake Zone Leaderss and did some tracting and stuff with them. They are super cool! Elder Larson went with me and he is so funny. He's super sarcastic, but way funny haha.  Sunday was a long day of meetings and stuff, but really fun!

     Monday was Mission Leadership Council (MLC) in Bloomington. All the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders meet with President and the Assistants to the President to discuss how we can help missionaries in our zones and hasten the work more. It was really good and I learned a lot. It makes me kinda mad, though, when people want to talk about numbers and key indicators the whole time because we talked about those for like an hour and 45 minutes. I understand the importance and that is truly how you measure success, but I feel like we should spend more time focusing on people, and less on how to increase numbers. Some Zone Leaders are all about numbers and stuff, but I would rather have less key indicator numbers if the people they are teaching are progressing and feel loved. It was good though, and I learned a lot from it. It was good for me to learn from seasoned Zone Leaders who know what they are doing and from the Assistants to the President because they are good missionaries. So it was a fun day, too. We got home at like 8:30 Monday night because we did some work down in Becker on the way home and had to help the Elk River Sisters with a service project for an investigator. It was a long day and I was beat at the end of the day.  I also got a bunch of weights from Apple Valley that were in the storage shed in Bloomington, so I'm a happy camper now.

     My learning experience from this week is about charity. I've always struggled loving and being patient with people, and I've really been struggling with that as a Zone Leader. In Moroni 7:45-48 it talks about praying with "all the energy of heart that we may be filled with this love." I've truly seen that help me miraculously as a leader. I pray so much each day that I can be more loving and humble and patient with missionaries and their wide array of struggles and problems. It's helped me so much, and I know if we have charity for all we will be blessed and be a light in the lives of others. I still get really annoyed with missionaries' problems and how they sometimes just need to "man up" or "tough something out", but I've tried to put myself in their shoes and be patient and get to know them and their background so I can help them and love them as the Savior would. It's been a blessing to be in the position, and I feel like it's been more for me than for anyone else. I'm loving my mission and can't really imagine life without it. It's gonna be hard to come home in less than year and be a "normal person" again haha. Thanks so much for all the love and prayers and support from you all back home! Love you all and miss you lots. 

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Happy 4th of July from the MMM!

Our new Mission President arrived this week!

I love getting to see Elders I haven't seen in a while!

Exchanges with Elder Beutler!

Spencer Baker showing off his hardware!

Culver's shakes are the best!

When Utah Rd crosses Tennessee Dr!

I always wondered what it would be like to be Bane...

Things are picking up!

Hello to all my family, friends, and coaches at home, college and serving the Lord around the world! Hope you all had a great week and are enjoying summer break! We had another super slow week of finding and stuff, but Saturday and Sunday were awesome and we found like 5 people and taught a lot of lessons, so we finished strong this week!

P days are way different out here in the sticks. There isn't much to do because everyone is so spread out, so we wake up and go to the church and workout and then do studies and then shop and then go to a member's house to do laundry and email. That's about all there is to do so that's what we did last Monday. It sucks not being around other missionaries like in the cities. We had dinner with the Brinnleys and the YSA group at like 7 pm and then had a lesson with Brother Charter and his kids. He has had some marriage problems and so we stay in contact as much as we can with him because he might go insane sometimes haha. He's a funny guy though and so are his kids! We also did some stop bys and no one was home as usual so yeah, that was Monday! 

Tuesday morning we had to coordinate rides and all the logistical stuff for Zone Conference. That took like all morning haha. We also had to plan a 30 minute training on accountability. When I first found out about that, I was like, "How in the heck are we going to give a 30 minute training on accountability from a 2 paragraph section in Preach My Gospel?" But we managed to make one, and it ended up being pretty good haha so that was good.  After that we drove down to Clear Lake which is about 30 minutes South of us and tracted for about 2 hours. We met some cool people but no one was super solid. We talk to so many people who will listen and take Books of Mormon and stuff but just won't set up return appointments. I wish I could see what ends up happening to the Books of Mormon we give away because I'm sure at least one of them gets read and will affect someone's life! We had dinner with the Roback family in Becker Tuesday night and they are super awesome. Brother Roback is the Elders Quorum President. I really like their family. I ate so much watermelon there haha. It was super good! I shared the Friday Night Lights dinner message and Brother and Sister Roback loved it. They said they went to that movie for their first date! Sounded like a good date to me! haha Sister Roback told us this story about when she was at a YSA activity and was wrestling and she got put in this like "anaconda squeeze" hold and farted super loud and everyone was dead silent and just stared at her. I choked on my watermelon and almost died because I was laughing so hard. It was so random and funny.  After dinner we drove down to southern Becker to stop by some people and most people we stopped by had moved or weren't interested but that's ok cuz Becker is super far away! We tracted this street down there and met this super cool guy named Alex. He was from Romania originally and we talked to him for about 20 minutes. He was in his garage moving stuff and we offered to help and then ended up talking about the Book of Mormon and the restoration! He was really nice and said we could stop by next time we were down there. So it was a pretty good way to end the day. 

Wednesday was exchanges with the Alexandria Elders. They just blitzed our area and rode down with us to zone conference on Thursday. So I went with Elder Bentley and we had a party haha.  We had like 15 stop bys planned and the first person came out to talk to us on her patio.  Her name was Debrelle Bergan.  She was really nice and has been reading the Book of Mormon a little bit. She referred us to this family in the apartment building across from her so we went over there to check it out. While we were walking over we contacted this lady from Tennessee who was up to visit her daughter. She had met missionaries before and had a Book of Mormom. She said she was around until the end of July and gave us her number and said to give her a call. The apartment building was a lockout so we couldn't get in and buzzed the apartment she gave us but no one let us in. So we walked up the road a ways to this other apartment building where this guy named Jerry lives. He wasn't there but we talked to this cool old lady who was waiting for the bus right by his apartment. The bus pulled up right after we started talking to her but we gave her a card and talked about the Book of Mormon a little bit so that was fun! As we were walking back to our car I heard this song and it sounded really familiar and then I was like, "Oh, I know that song!" It was a country song by Chase Rice I really like. This guy was jamming it in his parked car, so obviously I went over to talk to him and right when we walked over he rolled up his window on us.  So we didn't get to talk to him at all. After that we tracted this like super out of the way road. It was pretty rural and I doubted anyone had ever tracted it so we went for it and had a good amount of success! The first door we knocked on this lady talked to us for like 10 minutes haha. She basically just talked about moving to Hawaii but we tried to get in gospel stuff here and there haha. We then met this lady named Taunya. She talked to us forever and took a plan of salvation pamphlet and really liked it! She said her mom had just passed away so we talked about how we can be together as families forever. It was cool. Then we met this guy sitting out in his car named Bob. He told us he had read the whole Book of Mormon and it was wrong and our church was wrong and that he belonged to Calvary Lutheran church and that it was the true church because they taught only from the scriptures. I was a little confused because we teach from the scriptures and from the words of modern prophets and apostles. Anyways, Elder Bentley and he got into a Bible bash and Elder Bentley just went off and roasted him and was like, "If you have read the Book of Mormon and don't believe it then you have been deceived!" Then Bob just said we were wrong and the Bible was right and all that stuff. And they got into a little argument about the revelations scripture about not adding to the word of God. I was just dying cuz it was like a fire and brimstone debate. After that we had dinner at our place and then Brother Paulsen took us out to Foley for the evening. When we got there, the whole town was having this huge parade thing and so the people we were going to visit weren't able to be visited. We literally couldn't get to the houses we wanted to get to cuz there was so many people in the streets and stuff. It was insane. Foley is this really small farm town like 30 minutes East of Sauk Rapids, so we get out there like once a week. I was pretty mad because we weren't able to see people because of the parade. There literally was no way to get to the houses we wanted to get to and the people probably weren't home anyways.  It was a bummer but we ended up stopping by this less active lady who lives on a farm and met her and her new husband. Brother Paulsen and her husband talked about fishing for forever and we talked to her about her history with the church. She said she isn't active and isn't planning on being active but was happy we stopped by and visited her! After that we drove home and had a party with Elders Boothe, Bentley, Myer and myself haha.

Thursday was Zone Conference in Brooklyn Park, which is like an hour and little bit from our place. We had to be there 30 minutes early to set up, so we left our place at 7 am. So we woke up pretty early to get there on time haha. I got to conduct Zone Conference, and I was a little nervous to do that because I've never conducted before, but it wasn't too bad.  Elder Myer and I gave a training on accountability and it went really well. We used some stuff from Chapter 8 in Preach My Gospel and some other talk that Elder Myer found by Elder M. Russell Ballard. It is scary being in front of like 40 missionaries and training them.  I'm brand new to Zone Leading and don't feel like a super great Zone Leader or anything, so it was scary, but it ended up working out! Elder Peterson and I hung out at lunch and had a party haha so that was good. I love him, and I hope we can serve together at some point in our missions. We wrapped up Zone Conference at about 3 pm and then we had to stick around for interviews with President, and all the Sisters in our zone wanted blessings for various reasons, so we gave all of them blessings. Once again, it was awesome and I love giving blessings. We finally got out of there at like 5 pm. I got a final picture with President and Sister Forbes. They go home this week and I am really going to miss them.  We went to dinner in Maple Grove at this really good restaurant I went to once up there. We got omelettes and hash browns and toast for like $8. Super good deal.  Then we drove home and got home at like 7:30 pm. We did some stop bys and tracted after that but didn't see much success. I was beat at the end of the day. I feel like the days we do nothing are the ones I get most tired from haha. 

Friday we weekly planned and did accounting stuff until 4:30 pm. It was insane. Elder Myer and I were going nuts and were like taking a break every 30 minutes and doing push-ups and jumping over chairs and stuff so we didn't go crazy haha.  We drove up to Brother Charter's house so he could take us up to Little Falls for dinner with the Dobsons. When we got there, Brother Charter told us he had destroyed a toilet at his work and was super gassy. I don't know why he tells us these things but he does! So the drive up was interesting, to say the least. It was about a 45 minute drive and the windows were open for most of the drive. The Dobsons made us a huge feast for dinner which was great! They made ham, stuffing, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, and last but not least, baked beans. I love sweet potatoes so much. I honestly don't know why I hated them before the mission.  So anyway, Brother Charter and Elder Myer had a contest to see who could eat the most baked beans. It was not a good idea given the current state Brother Charter was in.  The Dobsons are less active and we had a lesson with them about fasting.  Brother Charter was ripping farts off the whole lesson. It was so bad. He is our Ward Mission Leader and we were just like, "Oh Brother Charter, what are we gonna do with you?"  It was bad. We stopped by some less actives up in Little Falls but most of them weren't home or weren't interested so that wasn't too good.  We stopped by this one less actives house and it was just this run down old shack of a house. We knocked on all the doors about no one was living there anymore. It was a little scary haha. 

Saturday we finally found some people to talk to and have lessons with.  In the morning we just walked around this ghetto part of our area. There's a motel called the "Thrifty Motel" that's basically a brothel and drug house. These two ladies who were from this other church stopped us and gave us some pamphlets for their church and said it was the true church. They were like 65 years old we tried to give them a pamphlet from our church but they said our church was wrong and the only way to be saved was accepting Jesus Christ as our savior. It was pretty weird to say the least. I told them we did that, but they said we were still wrong. I tried to start telling them about our church but they said we were wrong unless we read the pamphlets they gave us and accepted the Bible and Jesus as our savior. I just told them to "Have a nice day" cuz I hate Bible bashing with people.  I read their pamphlet and boy is it such a bunch of bogus.   I will send a picture of it.  They asked us if we believe Jesus is God, so we started talking about the Godhead but they weren't having any of it. They told us Jesus is God and not separate beings, but as I read their pamphlet it contradicted what they said. I just have to shake my head sometimes. I'm grateful to be a part of the true church of Jesus Christ and have the fullness of the gospel! It is truly one of the greatest blessings in my life. After that we contacted these two guys named Jay and Ryan who were out in their driveway "making trash." (Throwing away trash haha) They were super drunk and asked us all these weird questions about Joseph Smith and plural marriage. We talked to them for about five minutes and then had to leave. They were super weird and crazy but they invited us over for dinner to have flat chicken. We had no clue what flat chicken was but it sounded interesting ha ha.  So we told them we would swing by at 6:15 pm after our actual dinner. After that we had lunch and then had a lesson with Mark (less active YSA) at the church. That went super well! We had a lesson about the plan of salvation and it was awesome. We drew it on a chalk board and taught it as we went. Mark had some super good and deep questions, so we spent a lot of the time talking about those. It was a really good lesson though. After that Spencer Baker came out with us. He just got home from his mission in Brazil and is super cool! I like him a lot. We did some prospective Elder stop bys, but none of them were home. This one apartment we stopped by was a lockout, and this guy that was going in with us just let us in when he went in. So we got in and all these old guys were sitting around shooting the bull and being "apartment cops". They made us leave and buzz ourselves in. I was like, "We are visiting so and so and we just got let in." They made us go out, shut the door, and call the guy to get buzzed in. He wasn't there unfortunately.  The guys were being big time jerks and Spencer was like, "Is it always like this?" And we were like, "Yeah, it isn't uncommon haha." We then had a lesson with Sister Brainard, who is a less active lady. She has been less active for so long she doesn't know anything about the church or when she got baptized or anything. So we got to know her and shared about the Book of Mormon and invited her to read and pray. She said she is planning on coming to church this next week. We then had dinner with Sister Kennedy and had some mac n cheese. Then we went back to Ryan and Jay's house. This is a funny story: so we get there and knock on the door and Jay answers and he is hammered. Like bloodshot eyes, everything. He's just in his underwear and that's it haha.  He lets us in and shows us Ryan, who is passed out in the bedroom because he is drunk. Then he gave us some flat chicken, which is basically a full chicken that got run over by a truck and is flat. I don't know what is better about it but it tasted good nonetheless. Then he gave us some homemade cookies and they were also really good! Then he's like, I wanna show you guys something on YouTube. So we turns on his tv and pulls up YouTube. We were ready to like run away in case he showed us porn or anything like that. So he pulls up "Guy on a Buffalo" and it was the funniest thing I've ever seen.  Everyone watch it so you know how much I laughed haha. It was so random and Jay was like singing along with it and all that.  Jay just seems like a lonely guy and he invited us over again this week so we will see how it goes! We then had a meeting with the ward missionaries and Brother Charter and did some ZL paperwork and called it a night. 

Sunday was awesome, too! We went out and did some stop bys before church and didn't have a ton of success. So Matt, who was an investigator and dropped us, showed up to church again this week! We had no clue he was coming but he came again, and Sister Kennedy brought this guy named David that I guess she is dating haha. He was super nice too, and we are having dinner with them this week! After church we had a potluck with the ward and that was pretty good. We tracted this street called Utah Road after dinner and had a lot of success there. We found a guy named Roan from South Africa who plays rugby and he talked to us for a while on his porch and took a Book of Mormon and said we could come back this week. We are going to try to go to one of his rugby games soon, too.  We also met this guy named Richard who took a Book of Mormon for his wife and said she would be interested. He said he lived the simple life and didn't really believe in God. He just worked, fished, and kept his wife happy haha. I was like, "Dang, you got it figured out!" We also met this lady named Deb whose sister and her whole family were Mormons but she wasn't. She let us in and we talked for like 30 minutes. She was super nice and we left her a challenge to read "Fourth Floor, Last Door" by President Uchtdorf because she has a prodigal son, so to speak. He just kind of left home and became an atheist and lives his own lifestyle now. So she was worried about him a lot and that talk is awesome for that topic. After we tracted we had a lesson with Reegan Bird and his family. He is a less active member that we think may actually be an unbaptized child of record. He doesn't show up in the church records but he told us he is a member and grew up a member. His mom is a member in like Hutchinson or something. His wife is a Jehovah's Witness, but she loves us and always makes us food haha. They are having us over on Thursday for lunch and to help them with yard work.  Anyway, we just talked about what Jehovah Witnesses believe and then she asked about the Book of Mormon and so we did a history of the Book of Mormon lesson and invited them to read it and pray about it. It was a super good lesson and the spirit was very strong. After that we did numbers and went to sleep. 

This week has been really great! It went by so fast. Things were really slow when I got here, but they are starting to pick up quite a bit. I know when we work hard, plan well, and have faith, God will help us in His work. I know this church is true, and this is God's work we are doing. I'm grateful to be a part of hastening the work and sharing the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with all those I meet. In less than a year I will be home. That's crazy! I am making the most of every day I get out here because they go by so fast! I love you all, thanks for the "hump day" packages, family! Love you guys! 

Much love,

Elder Beach

#MavUp #10

Sunset in my new area.

Some interesting places we tracted into.

Last visit with President and Sister Forbes before they go home.

Loved seeing old friends at Zone Conference!

The St. Cloud Zone.